Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair
by NoughtsHadAllsSpent
Summary: Ricki: drug addict; sex addict; dominatrix; liar; manipulator; daughter; friend; soul mate; hero? How did she get like this?
1. Anticipation

When I woke up on the morning of the 8th of November that year it was pitch dark. I got out of bed carefully and crept downstairs. If the clock in the kitchen was right it was 5.09am. I always got up in the early hours of the morning, having fallen asleep not many hours earlier. There was no particular reason for this other than that my ways tended to lean more towards that of an insomniac's. I did, however, like to watch the sun rise. To do this I had a sepcial spot in a tree in our garden, and this was where I went. It was freezing outside and as I had forgotten about the existence of shoes I could feel the cold morning dew on the grass as I made my way round the house and down the garden to my tree.

In a few hours my mother would be awake. She would make me breakfast and no doubt make a fuss about my early rising and bare feet, as she did every other morning.

In a few hours my best friend, Melissa Evolt, would arrive with her parents and her younger twin brothers and together we would all celebrate my 11th birthday.

In a few hours I would recieve my Hogwarts acceptace letter.

I smiled to myself at the thought. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The place Lissa and I had heard so many stories about. The place we had been dreaming of going ever since we could remember. The place we would be that time next year. Until then though we still had to go to muggle school because our parents, although all magical, decided it would be good for us to learn how to read, write, etc., and learn how to mingle with other children at the same time. So, instead of the usual wizard upbringing of homeschooling, we were enrolled in a muggle primary school not too far from where I lived.

Tomorrow we would be doing this all over again, but for Lissa in Evolt Mansion, or, as we so lovingly called it, 'Evil Mansion'. Lissa was born the day after me and we have known each other ever since then. Growing up we were more like sisters than anything really. My father was sent to Azkaban prison when I was just a baby and my mother, well let's just say she didn't cope that welll seeing as her soon-to-be-husband was sent to prison for the murder of their mutual best friends. So Lissa's parents stepped in and helped her raise me.

The stars quickly left the sky to make way for the sun and I went inside just as my mother was coming down the stairs.

"Morning, birthday girl," my mother greeted. She ruffled my hair and pulled me in for a hug.

"Morning," I replied, pulling away from her.

"You're freezing Ricki, were you outside? Go put some slippers on and I'll make breakfast." I rolled my eyes and nodded.

"Pancakes?" I asked hopefully. My mother just smiled in response.

"Did you get it yet? Your letter!?" Lissa asked the sencond she stepped out of the fire. I held up an envelope of heavy yellow parchment. Lissa squealed. "Have you opened it yet?" I nodded my head and gave it to her. She stood still as she read it then squealed again when she was done.

"I can't wait 'til I get mine tomorrow!"

"It's gonna say exactly the same thing, you know."

"I know but still, yay! Happy Birthday by the way! Ooh that rhymed.."

"Ehm yeah, thanks.." I said, chuckling at how weird my best friend was.

"So girls, what house do you think you're going to be in?" asked Lissa's dad, Alex Pest. Lissa's parents, like mine, weren't married when they had her so Lissa took her mother's name, Evolt, instead.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Lissa and I shouted in unison. We laughed. Both of our mothers were Gryffindors and both went on to become Aurors for the Ministry. They were best friends at Hogwarts and were still just as close as Lissa and I. Lissa's dad was in Hufflepuff. He worked part-time in a little wizarding sports shop.

"That's my girl," said my mum, "now come on, who wants some birthday cake?"

Much of the same happened the next day. Lissa was ecstatic when she got her letter. Remus Lupin, an old family friend, turned up to wish us both happy birthday and congratulations. I stayed at Lissa's house that night but neither of us got much sleep. We were too hyped up talking about what our first year of Hogwarts was going to be like.


	2. School Supplies

We eventually got to the end of muggle school in the middle of June. The school year would have passed pretty monotonously had we not made an important discovery in January.

Kyle Schwimmer was the closest friend Lissa and I had made in muggle school. He had black hair and a pair of piercingly blue eyes. We were drawn to him after we witnessed what we believed to be a case of accidental magic when we were about six years of age. Our teacher had been giving out to Kyle for something and he had gotten upset, as any six year old would. The next thing the teacher new, however, was that her chair, which had seemed perfectly stable, collapsed beneath her when she sat down. You're probably thinking that this was completely explainable but Lissa and I jumped to conclusions and interrogated a very shocked Kyle in the playground later that day. Our investigations into the matter proved futile but Kyle turned out to be a rather good friend nonetheless. Though that doesn't mean that we didn't continue to try and provoke a little magic out of him.

However, our theory was proved the January after we received our Hogwarts letters. As it was his birthday, Kyle had invited some friends over to his house for a party. When Lissa and I arrived with Lissa's mother, Becca, we were met by a very pale Mrs. Schwimmer. She explained that Kyle was ill and that she had phoned around to tell people not to come but that she didn't have a phone number for us and she was terribly sorry for any inconvenience. Right about then a woman dressed in an emerald green cloak appeared beside Mrs. Schwimmer.

"Professor McGonagall! Oh, so is Kyle..?" said Lissa's mum.

"Good morning Rebecca dear. Yes, I was just giving Mr. Schwimmer his letter."

"You know them..?" asked Mrs. Schwimmer, she seemed a little dazed.

"Yes, Mrs. Pest was at Hogwarts when she was a girl. Miss Power and Miss Evolt here will be joining your son this year at school I believe. Good morning girls."

"Morning Professor," Lissa and I said, staring at McGonagall. It was around this time that Mrs. Schwimmer fainted.

Lissa and I spent the rest of the school year telling Kyle everything we knew about the magical world. And what we didn't know we read about. The three of us spent the majority of our free time pouring over books in the library at Evolt Mansion, a place I had spent time in and admired from a young age.

When the summer holidays finally arrived the three of us could barely contain ourselves. We had a list of things to buy for Hogwarts and we needed to go to Diagon Alley A.S.A.P., or so it seemed to our eleven year old selves. Our parents had said that they would bring Kyle and his parents with us when we went so we could show them around and help them if they needed it. They had promised us that they would bring us the moment they got a day or two off work.

That day came the second Saturday of the summer. Kyle and his anxious looking parents and Lissa and her mum (her dad was staying home to mind the then six year old twins) came to my house and one by one we flooed to The Leaky Cauldron.

I stumbled out of the fireplace into the dark, musty pub and waited for the others. I had, of course, been to Diagon Alley before but this time was special. After that day I would finally have my very own wand. When Kyle and Lissa came out of the fireplace the three of us bounded off to the little courtyard where the bins were kept. Kyle and his parents watched open mouthed as my mother took out her wand, tapped one of the bricks on the wall and stepped back as the wall slowly turned into an archway leading us through to the curving cobbled street; the higgledy-piggledy rooftops of shops that seemed to be stacked on top of one another; the bustling crowds of people dressed in cloaks of every colour doing their shopping; the splendour that was Diagon Alley.

Our first destination was Gringotts as our mothers had agreed to help the Schwimmers open an account. For two muggles who had previously had no idea about magic, I thought they were doing very well, though Mrs. Schwimmer did almost faint again when she saw the goblins outside Gringotts and neither of them looked too well when Kyle mentioned the dragons he had read about that guarded the high security vaults.

We got around every shop and by the time we got to Ollivander's we were all laden with parcels full of our new school things. We all piled into the tiny shop, one of the only shops I had never been in in the alley. It was like a library but instead of books the shelves, which completely lined the walls, held hundreds upon hundreds of small boxes. There was dust everywhere as if nobody had been in the shop in years and when Mr. Ollivander appeared he looked as though he hadn't left the shop in years. He was a pale man with even paler grey hair and blue eyes that stared at you as though they were waiting for you to answer an unasked question. He smiled when he saw us.

"Ah, three new customers, very good," he took out three measuring tapes which promptly began to measure us by themselves as he started to take down boxes. "Here we use three different types of wand core: Unicorn tail hair, dragon heart string and Phoenix feather. Each are extremely powerful and each have the capability to produce extraordinary magic but remember, the wand chooses the wizard." He looked at my mother, "Ah, Ms. Power, cherry and unicorn, 13 inches, swishy, how is it?"

My mother nodded her head, "As good as it was when it chose me, Mr. Ollivander."

"Yes, and you, Mrs. Pest now isn't it? If I remember correctly, dragon and Hawthorne, 12 and two thirds, relatively temperamental."

Lissa's mum smiled, "Stubborn, you mean? Yes it's just fine.."

Mr. Ollivander chuckled and handed Kyle a wand. "Now, try this."

Kyle gave the wand a wave but nothing happened. Two wands later though sparks were flying, we were applauding and Kyle had his wand. 15 inches, fir tree and unicorn hair, quite rigid but good for most types of magic.

Lissa was next. It took a while but Mr. Ollivander seemed to enjoy how difficult it was to find her a wand. Eventually, when the front desk was crowded with boxes, Lissa whirled around the wand she had in her hand and three little birds flew out.

"Wonderful! Marvellous! Absolutely splendid!" said Mr. Ollivander as we all clapped and Lissa curtseyed. Her wand was English oak and phoenix feather, 13 and a half inches, good for transfiguration.

Finally it was my turn. After I tried four different wands unsuccessfully, Mr. Ollivander stood and looked at me for a while and then disappeared into the back of the shop. He appeared minutes later with a very dusty black box.

"I made this wand many years ago when I was travelling, looking for more exotic wand woods. Ebony and unicorn hair, 14 inches. An exceptionally powerful wand. I don't know... Well I suppose it can't hurt to try..." he held it out to me. It was sleek and black with tiny skulls and cross bones intricately carved into a ridge in the handle, there was a small round crystal on the end. It was beautiful. I took it carefully and immediately I could feel a warmth in my hand that I didn't get with any of the other wands. I could feel that it was a powerful wand. I gave it a flick and a few leaves came out and blew around the shop on a gust of wind. I smiled up at Mr. Ollivander and he gave me a weary little smile back as the others clapped.

"Use it wisely, Miss Power, as I said, it is a powerful wand."

We paid, said thank you, gathered up our parcels and headed for the Leaky Cauldron. Before we flooed home we stopped to have some food in the pub. We had had ice-cream earlier in Fortesque's but we were still all starving after a long day of shopping.

While our mothers told Kyle's parents about Hogwarts, Lissa, Kyle and I chattered about our purchases.

"I'm sad we don't get to use our wands 'til we get to Hogwarts," said Lissa, frowning into her soup.

"Yeah, well knowing you you'd have the house burned down by the end of the summer," I teased.

"I wouldn't burn the house down!" I raised my eyebrows, "Shut up..."

Lissa, not unlike her mother I'm sure, sometimes had violent tendencies so the likelihood of her burning the house down was actually quite high.

"I wonder what Ollivander meant by 'Use it wisely'?" pondered Lissa.

"Probably meant be careful, y'know, cause he said it's a powerful wand," said Kyle.

"Yeah, I dunno... Probably." I had been wondering about that myself since he had said it. I guessed I would have to find out what he meant when I got to Hogwarts but something about Ollivander unnerved me a bit.


	3. The Boy in the Bookshop

"I don't want to go into the apothecary, it smells funny in there!" I complained as my mother tugged my hand to lead me out of Flourish and Blotts. It was two weeks after our shopping trip for school supplies. My mother said she needed to pick up a few things from Diagon Alley. "For work," she had told me, so I tagged along. My mother stopped in the doorway and looked at me impatiently.

"Why can't I just stay here while you go and get whatever it is you're getting?" she stared at me for a few seconds, thinking. I looked back hopefully.

"Well fine, Ricki, but you're to stay in this shop. Don't leave and don't talk to anyone 'til I get back. I shouldn't be long."

"Thanks. I'll be fine, don't worry," I muttered as she kissed the top of my head and left the shop. I went back to where I had been before my mother decided to leave and began to scan the shelves again, picking out interesting looking books here and there to read the covers.

I jumped at the sound of the doorbell tinkling. A boy not much taller than myself walked in. As he walked past me, he looked at the book in my hands, and snorted.

"What wizard would want to live as a muggle?" I looked down at the book. 'My Life as a Muggle'. I shrugged and put it back on the shelf quickly. He looked me up and down as if deciding whether I was worthy to talk to or not. The boy looked a lot like me, with similar pointed facial features, only his hair was as white blond as mine was black.

"Are you buying your Hogwarts things?" he asked. He had a sort of drawling, bored voice. I shook my head.

"No, I bought mine a few weeks ago, you?" He nodded and started to walk away towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts section. I followed.

"My father should be coming now, he was going down Knockturn Alley and told me to get my robes fitted but I wanted to look for a book first. Are you here with your parents?"

"My mum is in the apothecary, I told her I'd stay here and read. Did you say your dad was down Knockturn Alley?"

"Mm..." he said, he seemed to be engrossed in a book.

"My mother says I'm not allowed there." He looked up.

"Really? Well I'm going there now. My father is taking far too long and I want to tell him to buy this book for me." He showed me the book he was previously engrossed in. 'Curses and Counter-curses' by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"Can I go with you?" I asked as he put the book back.

"Well," he said, "you're a girl. You'll probably be too scared." He smirked at me maliciously.

"I'm not scared," I said indignantly. He shrugged and stalked past me towards the door. Yet again, I followed.

I have never really listened to what my mother told me. Looking back on my childhood and teenage years, I probably should have. But hey, I was a rebellious child. Though I do feel sorry for my mother, I must have been a nightmare to try and raise.

Knockturn Alley was dark, to say the least. As an eleven year old in an alley full of criminals, hags and Merlin knows what else with an eleven year old boy I just met, I probably should have been more scared. But, to tell the truth, I wasn't.

I stopped to look in the window of a tattoo shop. I had been fascinated with tattoos ever since my mother got one of three flowers on her ankle. Some people associate tattoos with bad things and say that they are ugly, that you are ruining your skin, but to me there were, are, like works of art that you carry with you forever.

I looked up and noticed the boy had gone ahead without me. "Hey, I never got your name," I said after I had caught up with him. He stopped and looked at me.

"Draco. Draco Malfoy." He held out his hand.

"Ricki Power," I said as I shook his outstretched hand.

"Pleasure, I'm sure," said Draco as he walked on- and stopped.

"Draco, what in the name of Merlin are you doing down here?I left you in Flourish and Blotts for a reason." A tall man dressed all in black and holding a cane stared angrily at Draco. With his long, white-blond hair and pointed features, he could only be Draco's father.

Draco looked away from his father's burning gaze. "I know, father. I just came to tell you that I want 'Curses and Counter-curses' by Vindictus Viridian."

"Very well." Mr. Malfoy seemed to notice me for the first time. "What's this, Draco?"

Draco looked at me almost accusingly. "That would be a girl, father," he said sarcastically, but when he saw the look his father gave him, he went on. "This is Ricki Power. I met her in the book shop. She's starting Hogwarts this year too."

"Power?" I nodded. "I see," said Mr. Malfoy coldly, "Well then, you had better go. I am sure you're mother," he seemed to spit the word, "is looking for you."

"Yes sir, Mr. Malfoy." I looked at Draco. "Well, I suppose I'll see you at Hogwarts."

"Yes," he turned to his father, "Why don't we walk her out, we're going that way anyway, aren't we?"

His father looked at me as if trying to calculate something, then he looked back at Draco and nodded curtly. So the Malfoys walked me out of Knockturn Alley. And then my mother, quite literally, ran into me.

"Oh Ricki! Darling! I've been looking for you everywhere!" Relief flooded her voice as she squeezed me and then she held me away from her and her tone changed to one of anger, "How many times did I tell you not to leave the shop? Don't ever do that to me again, are you listening to me?" I nodded solemnly and noticed that the two Malfoys were still standing behind my mother looking slightly amused, slightly horrified. For a moment, one divine minute, I thought my mother hadn't noticed that I had just walked out of Knockturn Alley with Draco Malfoy and his father and that we would just go off home without further embarrassment. But no, my mother turned on Mr. Malfoy, leaving me to stand awkwardly beside her.

"You! Why is it that I just found my daughter walking out of Knockturn Alley with YOU?!"

Mr. Malfoy looked shocked. "Mum, Mr. Malfoy was just making sure I got out safely, it wasn't his fault. I wandered down there by myself..."

While my mother was still staring at Mr. Malfoy with a look of rage, Draco was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I just scowled back at him.

Finally, my mother pursed her lips and said, "Very well, but you should be more careful, Malfoy. We've got our eye on you in the Auror office."

Mr. Malfoy just glared at my mother and said "See you at work. Come Draco." And the two of them headed up the other end of Diagon Alley.

"That man... At school, Ricki, don't go talking to that son of his, he'll probably end up just like his father." I didn't say anything and just let my mother hold my hand and lead me out of Diagon Alley like a five year old.


	4. And So It Begins

I didn't sleep on the last night of August that year. Apparently, my mother didn't either. I packed and repacked my suitcase three times during the night, shuffling through all of my things to make sure I had everything I needed. When eventually I decided I could make no further improvements, around 7am, I went downstairs to find my mother frantically dashing around the kitchen.

"Oh Ricki! What would you like for breakfast? Did you get any sleep at all? Have you everything ready? Have-"

"Mum.." I interrupted her. She put down the two different brands of cereal she had in her hands and smiled at me.

"I'm sorry, dear, it's just... I can't believe this day's finally come! What'll I do without you!?" She said, pouncing on me with her tear filled eyes. I think at this point it's worth mentioning that my mother is Irish and her accent becomes considerably more pronounced with any sort of emotion. Though I grew up in England, the Irish accent seemed to rub off on me from spending time with my Irish relatives, something I was teased for at school until I kicked a boy in the stomach for it, striking fear into my classmates and earning their respect at the same time...

"I'll be fine, mum. I'll write to you all the time, and sure I'll be home at Christmas!" She sniffled, nodded and kissed my forehead. Then we ate our last meal together.

At ten thirty my mother and I sat with Kyle and his parents in a little cafe outside Kings Cross Station. We had plenty of time to kill before we had to board the Hogwarts Express (unusual for us) and my mother spent it giving Kyle's parents some final reassurances about Hogwarts and the journey Kyle and I were about to embark upon. Lissa turned up with her mother fifteen minutes later-Alex had to stay home with the twins as Becca was afraid they'd find a way to sneak their way onto the train. They may have only been 6 but they were little divils. We took a moment to gather our things and then we were off. Kyle, Lissa and I led the way, the excitement clear on our faces as we grinned to one another, pushing our heavily laden trolleys. Kyle's parents' faces were painted with awe as we disappeared onto platform nine and three-quarters. And suddenly, it seemed impossible, but our excitement tripled as we were surrounded by an electric buzz of other young witches and wizards all destined for the same magical place we were. The air was thick with smoke from the enormous red steam engine. It's beauty struck me as it stood there, strong and sturdy, next to the throngs of people and luggage. That enchanted vehicle before my eyes symbolised so much; hope and adventure, a vessel from one world to another. I will never forget the first time I saw it. The first time I hauled myself up through one of it's narrow metal doors. The first time I waded through the crowds of my schoolmates to find an empty carriage, snug, not too uncomfortable, familiar. The first time I waved goodbye to my mother as she stood clutching her best friend's hand, watching that great engine carry me away from her, remembering the first time she was in my position.

It was not long before the three of us were joined by other new students. We chatted, made new friends, people came and went (a few older students came to gawk at the fresh meat), a boy named Neville lost his pet toad. The time flew by, as did the scenery. The big news that kept circulating back to us was that Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, was also new this year. Lissa and I knew all about this boy and kept quiet as the other students gossiped. The other big topic of conversation between us first years was trying to guess what houses everyone would be sorted into. Some people were adamant that they must be in a certain house (particularly those from long lines of Slytherin family), others, mainly the muggleborns, were not so sure. Whenever anyone asked, Lissa and I would always say Gryffindor, of course.

A lady came by with a trolley full of sweets around lunch time so, naturally, we bought as much (and as varied) as we could. We were trying to introduce Kyle to all that we had been telling him about.

It didn't seem like long after that it began to get dark and we decided it was about time we donned our school robes. Sure enough, we soon arrived at Hogsmeade station. Prefects told us to leave our belongings and herded us onto the platform. A bellowing voice boomed at us.

"First years! This way!" The shout came from an oversized, fierce looking man. His name was Hagrid. Lissa and I smiled and waved and the half-giant gave a kind smile back from behind his wiry beard. Hagrid was a friend of our mothers' who we occasionally saw down Diagonal Alley or who dropped by for tea with a batch of his infamous rock cakes once or twice a year.

As the first years all gathered around Hagrid we were made to look even smaller in comparison to his enormous size. Once everyone had arrived we set off after him down a path in the opposite direction to the rest of the students. We reached a small dock and warily boarded a fleet of small row boats. Each boat took off by themselves with a jolt, nearly knocking a student or two into the lake which we were crossing swiftly. The water was black and reflected the many stars spangled across the sky.

We got our first view of Hogwarts castle when we rounded the edge of a rocky cliff. It was the red steam engine all over again, except this sight stunned us all into silence. The universe was spread out before us in the sky and speared right through the heart of it were the turrets of this magnificent piece of architecture. The moon made the building a silhouette with softly flickering yellow light dotted in the hundreds of windows. It was truly breathtaking.

A boathouse engulfed us then and we had to climb a hundred steps in order to reach the grand, towering front doors of the school. Professor McGonagall met us here, relieving Hagrid of his duties, and led us inside. The entrance hall was vast, the ceiling more than unreachable, even for Hagrid. The stern looking witch, still dressed in emerald, put us in a small side-chamber to wait before the sorting ceremony. She gave us a speech about Hogwarts and it's houses and then she left us. Her speech seemed to scare some students as some nervous chatter broke out. And then someone screamed as we were joined by the ghosts of Hogwarts. They zoomed around us, welcoming us, hoping that we'd end up in their house. They were gone as quickly and as suddenly as they arrived. And then it was time.

McGonagall lined us up and led us through the heavy doors of the Great Hall. The rest of the school stared at us as we made our way to the other side of the room to stand in front of the teachers' table. There, the headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore, smiled down at us from behind his half-moon spectacles. I had met Dumbledore once before at the Ministry of Magic. I wasn't feeling well so my mother ended up taking me to work with her so she could look after me. Apparently the great man did not change, he still had the same long white hair and beard, the same decadent wizards robes, and the same sparkling blue eyes.

A hat was sat upon a stool in front of us, none other than the mysterious sorting hat I had heard about I supposed. A seam opened on said hat, taking us first years by surprise, and, more surprising still, the hat began to sing! When it was done, the sorting began. We tensed ourselves as McGonagall called us out one by one, alphabetically by surname, to come forth and put on the hat. Some people sat there for a good few minutes whilst the hat deliberated, others were sorted in a heartbeat. Each time a house name was roared by the hat, the members of that house would clap and cheer for their newest addition. I knew I would be one of the last but it wasn't long till Lissa's name was called. The hat was silent for a tense minute. Lissa and I stared at each other. Lissa closed her eyes, bracing herself. And then it was the hat screamed out something that changed our fate.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table broke out into applause. I was silent. Lissa shakily gave the hat back to McGonagall and made her way, step by step to the end of the table on her far left. She too was silent. Shocked. I stared after her. I suddenly felt sick. I couldn't concentrate on the rest of the sortings. Kyle squeezed my hand.

"Miss Power!" McGonagall's voice broke me out of my reverie. She was frowning at me. In fact, everyone was staring at me. Harry Potter must have just been sorted into Gryffindor as people were shaking his hands. I took a deep breath and walked to the little stool in front of me as if walking to a guillotine. I looked to Lissa who was sitting next to a rather large first year called Millicent Bulstrode. She gave a sad smile and gently shook her head and that was the last thing I saw before the sorting hat fell over my eyes.

On the train Lissa, Kyle and I had had a few minutes to ourselves amongst the hecticness in which we solemnly swore to each other that we would continue to be friends no matter what happened at Hogwarts. Now, as I sat in front of the entire school and the sorting hat murmured words like "a cunning, clever mind.. Good qualities for a Slytherin.." into my ear and my best friend sat before me at that dreaded house's table, that promise seemed to flicker before my eyes. Kyle was muggleborn. Slytherins hated muggleborns. What would we do? And yet, I couldn't sit there and hope to be in Gryffindor, or any other house, I couldn't leave Lissa by herself. The sorting hat was quiet. I was quiet. The Great Hall was quiet.

The call of "SLYTHERIN" rang through the silence.


	5. First Year

When the sorting hat was taken off me I seemed to float over to my new housemates. They applauded me, dark smiles on their faces, a new recruit. A ringing noise filled my ears. I sat down across from Lissa, next to Draco Malfoy. I glanced at the teachers' table, Dumbledore had a small frown on his face.

I spent the rest of the sorting sitting as still as I possibly could. Barely breathing. Kyle was sorted into Ravenclaw, the house he had wanted to be in. Lissa and I were joined by a boy named Zabini, Blaise, and then it was over. Dumbledore made a small speech and then every table was covered by mounds of delicious looking food. As everyone tucked in and chatter filled the room, we were once again joined by the school ghosts. Slytherin's ghost was the Bloody Baron, a frightful looking character, blood splattered all over him. Lissa and I talked as little as possible, nodding politely here and there. But we couldn't entirely avoid curious questions from other students at our table.

"Power, isn't it? From the book shop?" Draco asked, I nodded. "And you are...?" he said, turning to Lissa.

"Lissa," she said quietly. Draco nodded.

"Evolt was it?" Lissa nodded. "Hm.. Where do I know that name from?"

"It's an old family name from wizarding Germany," said Lissa, "My grandmother was Electra Evolt, a Ravenclaw, she married into the Slytherin Fitzgerald family." Though her father was a muggleborn Hufflepuff from South London and her mother was a Gryffindor, Lissa was proud of the ancient family history of her mother's side. She was very close to her grandfather Fitzgerald when she was little and had been present at his deathbed to hold his hand as he passed.

"Fitzgerald? Ah yes, my family was close to them. I'm Draco Malfoy," the blond haired boy said nodding in Lissa's direction. "This is Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini," he gestured to the other boys sitting around us.

"We sort of grew up together," said Blaise with a smile. Crabbe and Goyle grunted, their mouths full of food.

"What about your family?" Draco asked, turning to me.

"Em, well.. My mother's side, the Power family, are all Aurors.."

"Gryffindors too, no doubt?" said Draco, raising his pale brows.

"Yes," I said bluntly, turning back to my food. I didn't want to talk about my family. Thankfully, Draco didn't push the matter further.

The conversation moved on and neither Lissa nor I spoke again. Soon enough, the feast was over and once again we were being herded by prefects. The Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were led up the great moving stairs, Kyle in their midst. We managed to give him a small wave goodbye before we were swept downstairs with the Hufflepuffs. At the bottom of the stone staircase we parted ways from our yellow and black clad companions and were led deeper into the depths of the castle, all the way down to the dungeons.

"Here's where you'll have your potions classes," one of the Slytherin prefects said. She was tall with chocolate coloured hair and black eyes. She waved her hand nonchalantly at a door marked 'Potions' as she glided by. "Professor Snape is the Potions Master and is also Head of Slytherin House," she drawled.

We walked on. The walls were covered with dusty old paintings, the inhabitants of which stared at us as we went by, some chatting to us or to others in their painting. We stopped in front of a blank stone wall.

"This is the entrance to the Slytherin Common Rooms," said the prefect, addressing the first years. "The password is 'Pure'. You'll be notified of any changes to that." She turned around, tapped her wand to the wall and said the password. We all watched as the wall morphed into two large wooden doors with the Slytherin crest carved into them. The prefect pushed them open and we entered a dimly lit room. The walls were stone like the dungeons outside but the ceiling in here was higher. Silver and green tapestries hung from the walls and thick emerald curtains hung from the widows. The windows! They were perplexing. You couldn't see far out of them but they seemed to be looking out into murky green water. Weeds floated around outside them. It was like being in a ship that had sunk to the bottom of the sea. The prefect apparently noticed us all staring."The common room looks out into the Great Lake that you crossed earlier."

She led us through the room which was filled with exquisite wooden furniture and black leather chairs. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The doors we had come through had melted back into a stone wall. There was an enormous fireplace on the left side of the room that was already burning. A portrait of someone who could only be Salazar Slytherin hung over it. He was a thin man with protruding cheekbones, steel grey hair and sharp green eyes. And then we were climbing a short flight of steps on the opposite side of the room. We walked through iron gates that were held open and into another, similarly sized room. This had a lush green carpet on the floor and comfortable looking sofas dotted about the place. Another fire was alight in here. The room branched off into small chambers that seemed to be filled with pillows.

"In here is where we come to relax," said the girl, she looked terribly bored. "If you want to study, go in there." She pointed back at the room we had just come from. The other prefect, a short, stocky male with tightly cut dark blonde hair and deep set eyes, spoke up now.

"Boys, your dorms are this way. Follow me." And he headed to a corner of the room and disappeared down a set of stone stairs followed by half of the first years.

"Girls, this way." We followed the girl prefect down a different staircase that led away from the common room. "If any of the boys try to get down here," she pointed at a suit of armour at the bottom of the stairs, "that right there will come alive and get in their way." We followed her down a narrow corridor until she stopped at a junction. "Down there," she pointed to the left, "is the girls' common room and communal toilets. This way are our dorms." We all once again scuttled after her. We passed five wooden doors marked with the year group who lived behind them and then we came to our own. "You're things have been brought here already. Breakfast starts at 7.30, try not to start the year off by sleeping in." She turned to go but then paused and turned back. "Slytherin is a great house, despite what some people may say. Be glad you're here and make the most of it." And then she was gone.

"Of course it's a great house," said a girl named Pansy Parkinson, who's nose was more than a little up-turned, as she pushed her way into our room. Three four poster beds lined either side of the rectangular room. Each was draped with green and silver curtains. Heat was emanating from a cylindrical metal heater in the centre of the room. Sure enough, our cases and owls sat at the end of our beds. Lissa's and mine were situated at the far side of the room, which turned out to be next to the a bathroom that was small but sufficient. We were sharing the room with four other girls; Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Bulstrode, and Khloe Felmur. We were all too tired to talk so we collapsed into our beds. Everyone soon drifted off to sleep but me. I lay awake, reliving the sorting, not believing where I was.

I woke Lissa in the morning before the others woke up. We dressed quickly in our new robes embellished with green and silver and headed for breakfast. Since we just had to retrace our steps from the previous night this was manageable, but I had no idea how we were going to find our way around the rest of the castle. The tables this time were laden with all sorts of breakfast foods that you could imagine. We sat on the corner of the Slytherin table. Few others were up this early so we could talk freely. We stared at each other for a few seconds before bursting out giggling.

"What are we gonna do?" Lissa said once she had calmed down a tad.

"Haven't a clue!" I said, "What do I say to my mum? What do you say to your parents? Merlin's beard.." The tears Lissa had in her eyes from our hysterical outburst of giggling were threatening to turn into real tears. "Just write them a letter and say 'Oh hi! Missing you loads! It's great here! Love from your darling daughters. PS we're in Slytherin," I said animatedly, a poor attempt to cheer her up.

"We can't tell them.." she whispered. "But we have to," she argued with herself, "we can't just not."

"It's not..that bad...is it?" I suggested. "We're just.. In the house they hate the most." I said, failing to find an upside.

"Hopefully they'll still love us anyway?"

"Oh they will.. They'll just..question ..us.." I frowned into my bacon. This was not going to be easy.

Lissa and I ended up sending our families a letter halfway through the term, generally outlining what we liked and didn't like about Hogwarts. When we got letters back asking what houses we were in, we ignored them on the premise that we were too busy. The term was uneventful. We kept to ourselves around the Slytherins and spent as much time as we could either in the library (which soon became my favourite place - Oh the glory of books!) or with Kyle. Together the three of us made friends in Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor. We had a small group who we found to be just as odd as ourselves. We all joined Music class together, an extra-curricular subject taught by the short and enthusiastic Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick. I also joined the Art class. We did actually find ourselves to be rather busy, what with all of our new subjects, quidditch matches to attend, and Hagrid's house to visit. We could not completely separate ourselves from our Slytherin classmates, however. We eventually became cordial with our roommates, particularly Daphne, who stood up for us against Pansy who had a tendency to be rude no matter what the occasion. Pansy said that she put up with us because, if we were sorted into Slytherin, we couldn't be too bad. She did not approve of us hanging around the other houses, though. The boys we rarely spoke to, although it turned out that Blaise's grandmother knew and was good friends with Lissa's.

At Christmas we returned home and broke the news to our families. They were shocked, we could tell, but told us over and over that it was ok. Behind our backs, though, we knew they talked about it and that they were disappointed. We went back to school with a weight off our shoulders but with a heaviness in our hearts. The end of the school year passed much the same. Our Defence Against the Dark Arts professor turned out to have Voldemort stuck to the back of his head and was defeated by Harry Potter in an epic battle, or so we heard. Because of this, Slytherin just missed out on the house cup to Gryffindor. And that was our first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry over. Not what any of us expected.


	6. The Plan and Back to Hogwarts

Three weeks into our summer holidays Lissa and I were lounging in my back garden, the sun beating down on us as we stared up at the clear blue sky, side by side.

"Y'know, I've been thinking.." Lissa began. "We have six more years left at Hogwarts." I turned on my side to look at her. This was the first time either of us had brought the subject up.

"Go on."

"And, well, we can't just spend the rest of our school lives too afraid to do anything in our own common room." She sat up. "We have to change something."

"I agree," I said, also sitting up. "What and how?"

"Well the rest of Slytherin house isn't going to change for us, is it? We need to adapt. Adapt to survive!" She threw a fist in the air. I smiled and sat there thoughtfully.

"As frankly scared as I am to admit it, you're right," I put in after some deep consideration. "I think we're holding ourselves back. And the more we talk, the more I think we sound like Slytherins. Oh God." I grimaced.

"Yup. But, sad thing is, we are Slytherins now. And we can't change that. As much as we may like to, we can't just walk up to Dumbledore or the sorting hat and beg to be put in Gryffindor. People are sorted into houses for a reason. We've got to find our reason."

"Just because we were sorted into Slytherin doesn't mean we should change ourselves to become like one of them though: cruel, slimy, muggle haters."

"I'm not saying we should! Anyway, I think it'd be impossible for you and I to suddenly start hating muggles.." Lissa interjected. "We can still be friends with Kyle and the others, all I'm saying is, we should make more of an effort. With Draco and everyone." We were both silent for a long while.

"What'll we do..?" I said resignedly. Lissa smiled.

"Well, for a start, I was thinking about getting highlights in my hair, you know like my mum did that time? She said I could." I raised a brow quizzically at my friend. She was about an inch taller than me with long, brown, wavy hair and brown eyes. Her skin was naturally tanned and a pair of large glasses took up half of her face. "And I'm gonna lose the glasses and get contacts." My other brow shot up.

"And this will all help..how, exactly?"

"I don't know. It will give me a confidence boost? Make people see me in a different way?" I rolled my eyes. She was my best friend but she could be shallow at times. No wonder she was sorted into Slytherin. "We also need to go shopping. For dresses." I nodded. Slytherin house seemed to take any excuse to have a party; birthdays, quidditch matches, end of term and start of term. We didn't go to any of these last year but I could see Lissa had other plans for the following year. "Didn't you and Kyle want to get piercings? You should do that.." And on and on the child went with her planning. She eventually managed to get me enthusiastic, too. "Rick," she said, looking me in the eye, "one of these days we are gonna rule that school." She grinned at me and I grinned back, an excited feeling twisting my stomach.

A week later Kyle and I went to a local piercing and tattoo parlour with my mother. Kyle had convinced his mother to let him get his lip pierced and my mother, not altogether unfamiliar with piercings and tattoos herself, was more than happy for me to get my eyebrow pierced. Lissa's mother brought her to get her hair done and together, Lissa and I and our mums had a girly day out shopping. We managed to meet up with some of our new school friends as well. One boy, Tyler (dark haired, muggleborn and in Ravenclaw with Kyle) happened to live only a town away from us. The rest of our 'crew' consisted of a Hufflepuff boy named Luke (muggleborn, brown haired and handsome, he had a childish summer romance with Lissa that lasted all of two weeks), Twitch (an extremely nervous halfblood Hufflepuff girl, hence the nickname Twitch), Jason 'Raggsy' Raggs (suitably named for he had dreadlocks and always managed to look scruffy, also Hufflepuff, also muggleborn), and Hazel (a tiny, pureblood, blonde Gryffindor). All of our new companions were looking forward to a new year at Hogwarts, and, with the gusto our break from Slytherin and our plan had given us, so were Lissa and I.

Our journey back to Hogwarts on the train saw our plan immediately going underway. We sat with our Slytherin classmates. Politely discussed our summers (being careful not to mention our friends from the other houses too much), we kept the conversation mostly on others and how their summers went. Once we arrived at Hogwarts we soon settled into a rhythm of classes, homework, food, and splitting our time between the Slytherins and our other friends. Since the end of last year we had begun to build a friendship with Blaise after we found out about his and Lissa's grandmother, and this year he welcomed us with open arms. We soon found that, as opposed to the cool exterior he presented to the rest of the school, he was really a joker. In retaliation to some of his perhaps crueller jokes, Lissa and I started calling him 'Blaisey-Daisy-petal', which he could not stand but took with good humour. This friendship, as well as our friendship with Daphne, made our transition into proper Slytherin life much smoother.

Blaise was best friends with Draco, but Draco was much more stuck-up and harder to be friends with, especially considering how he treated the new first years and other people in general. One night, however, I once again found myself unable to sleep. I came up to the main common room because Millicent was snoring. To my surprise, I found Draco sitting on one of the couches in front of a slowly dying fire.

"Couldn't sleep either?" I asked, he jumped.

"Oh. Power. No, I couldn't. Goyle was snoring." I smiled. Draco and I got to talking that night. I ended up telling him that I was related to the Black family on my father's side. He told me his mother was a member of the Black family before she married and we worked it out that our parents were cousins. After this, Draco seemed to respect me an awful lot more. We became friends. I was able to get him to laugh when other people couldn't, and to get him to stop being so cruel when others couldn't. It was like crossing over some sort of invisible line. All of the Slytherins respected Draco, they admired him, even though he was only a second year. His family was powerful and pure. People wanted to be his friend. He was friends with Lissa and I, therefore people wanted to be our friends.

About halfway through the term quidditch tryouts took place. Now eligible, Lissa tried out for beater, and lo and behold she got it (the girl had a vicious streak). She was now part of the Slytherin quidditch team, along with Draco, a valued and important member of Slytherin house. It was around this time also, that I found myself with a new friend. As nobody I knew attended art classes with me, I found myself talking to this boy. He was two years older than me, a fourth year. He was extremely quiet but his art work was incredible. His name was Ian, he was Scottish. He was about 5'9 with brown hair that was short at the back but hung over his blue eyes. Every now and then we would compliment each other's art or he would give me tips. It had been this way since the year before, but now we started talking more.

"Yeah, no, I've seen some muggle art, there's some great stuff. Da Vinci isn't it?"

"Yeah, he is great. Mind your paintbrush doesn't fall," I warned.

"Thanks.. So, Hogsmeade is coming up, are you going? You could use chalk for that."

"What?"

"Chalk."

"Oh, thanks. Em, no, I'm not going to Hogsmeade. I'm too young."

"Oh right, sorry, I forgot." Silence.

Lissa was very excited about this conversation.

"He asked you OUT! Oh my GOD!"

"He did not ask me out. Why would he want to go out with a second year? He was just asking if I was going."

"It's the same THING!" I rolled my eyes. "What are you wearing to the Halloween party?!"

"What..?"

"Halloween! Party! He'll be there! You'll be there! Music! Dancing!"

"For the love of all things magical, calm down woman!" And so Lissa got to planning what I would wear to the party. Something altogether too short at any rate.

**Authors Note: Hello everyone! I hope you're enjoying it so far. I'm sorry if it's slow, I hope the shortness of the chapters makes up for it, it's hard to judge my own work.. Reviews would be much appreciated. Thanks! **


	7. Halloween

The days went on. Lissa and Blaise grew closer. Ian and I kept up our casual conversations, they had even expanded into the Slytherin Common Room where we'd say a few words on passing. Ian had a group of friends who, unlike him, were extremely boisterous. The gang consisted of mainly fourth and fifth years, the core of the group consisting of Ian, two other guys from fifth year and two girls, one from fourth, one from fifth. Due to their boisterous qualities I had noticed them all in the common room and elsewhere plenty of times before, but hadn't actually met them until one day, Ian and I were discussing an art assignment in the study area and his friends came bursting through the main doors to the common room.

"Fuckin' hell," Ian muttered under his breath. His friends bounced up to him. "Ricki, have you met my obnoxious mates?" I shook my head, looking bemusedly between Ian and the two taller boys that had just entered the room. "This is Sky," he said, pointing at the taller of the two.

"Hey," Sky said, smiling. He had a halo of golden hair that fell down his neck past his chiselled jaw and his skin was golden and his eyes were blue and he had very large muscles and for some reason, even if it didn't look like it, I felt like I had just been hit by a bus. I just nodded at him and tried to smile. If I looked like I was in pain it was because I was.

"And this is Scabior," he said, waving his hand in the direction of the other boy. This one had tousled, shoulder length brown hair that was tied back at the nape of his neck. His eyes were also blue, his jaw was also chiselled and held a day's worth of stubble. He was wearing tight tartan trousers.

"Alright?" He winked at me and smirked. Suddenly, there was another loud bang and in came the two girls.

"You two! Come here so I can kill you!" shouted one of the girls, she was small with spiky reddish brown hair.

"Fuck," said the boys in unison, and off they ran with the girls chasing after them.

"That's Anna with the blonde hair and the boobs. The short one who always looks angry is Stephanie. They're alright, the lot of them, once you get to know them.."

Halloween came finally. It was my second favourite Holiday after Christmas. When I was younger, my mother would insist on bringing Lissa and I out Trick or Treating, which Lissa and I loved for the sweets, she loved for the irony. Halloween at Hogwarts consisted of pumpkin flavoured everything and many, many sweets after the gargantuan Halloween feast. Slytherin house also held a party which was much anticipated, particularly by Lissa. She had broken out her sewing skills and taken up some of the dresses we had bought over the summer a good few inches. She had also managed to network some makeup and heels out of someone in an older year. So, after dinner on Halloween night I was forced into every dress until she decided on a black number for me ("Black's good. Makes you look dark and mysterious. You can never go wrong with a little black dress.") and a red one for herself. She gave me a pair of black stilettos to match and instructed me to give myself a smoky eye and to wear nice underwear. I couldn't help but laugh, but I did as she said.

Soon enough someone started blasting music in the common room and we headed up with the rest of our roommates. Surprisingly, it was a good party. As second years we had limited access to booze, but as it was many of our first time tasting alcohol, it was enough to loosen us up. As it was a Slytherin party strictly no other houses were supposed to be there, but as the night progressed a few other students slipped in, mainly the pureblood girlfriends or boyfriends of Slytherin students. I saw now what the chambers off the main common room were used for and learned the hard way that if the curtains were closed it was for a good reason.

Lissa spent most of the night dancing with Daphne, Draco and Blaise, or with her quidditch team. Ian and his friends were the life of the party. They seemed to have supplied most or all of the drink and food and were in control of the music. A few hours into the night I found myself dancing with them and then I was dancing with Ian and then we were kissing. And it was weird and wet and I didn't quite know what to do and I think our teeth clashed but neither of us really cared. His friends whooped and smacked him on the back and then we were all dancing together and then Lissa was snogging Blaise. My best friend and I were high on adrenaline and booze and our plan was working and we were surrounded by friends and we were happy. Later into the night the music got softer and people started to drift away. I found Ian again and we found a sofa to make out on. At some point Daphne dragged me off to bed and the party was over and I actually got a good night's sleep for the first time in a long time.

You see, all had not been so merry at Hogwarts that term. There was blood on the walls, people were being petrified, the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. And there was a voice, a voice that came from the walls that only I could hear. After the first attack on the caretaker Filch's cat, I started to hear the voice. It whispered terrible things. But I knew what it was. I had known I was a parselmouth since I was very little and I found a nest of grass snakes at the end of my garden. It was a secret that my mother kept very well. But when I heard the voice I ran immediately to Dumbledore's office. The Chamber of Secrets was created by Salazar Slytherin, also a parselmouth.

"Professor, I'm sorry, but I thought I ought to tell you, when I heard it - I didn't know what to do! I can speak parseltongue, you see, and I- I swear it wasn't me Dumbledore but I-" Dumbledore held up a hand, stopping my frantic rant.

"I am quite sure it wasn't you who opened the Chamber of Secrets, Miss Power." I stared at the old wizard. He didn't say any more.

"Well.. Who do you think opened it..?"

"We won't be sure until we know, will we? Until then we can do nothing but try and keep those at risk from harm." Again, I started at the wizard, perplexed. "Thank you for your honesty, Miss Power. You can go. I'll be seeing you again, I'm sure." And the old wizard opened the door to his office and out I walked. I did see Dumbledore again after that, I saw him more frequently around the castle and about once every month or so he called me to his office, for no reason in particular other than to check up on me.


	8. Cocaine Christmas

After the Halloween party I started sitting next to Ian and his friends at meals. Naturally, I began to learn a lot more about them all. Ian was second generation halfblood, like Lissa his father was muggleborn. Everyone else was pureblood, but none of their blood was as pure as the likes of Draco and Blaise. Art was more than a hobby to Ian. The past two summers he had worked part-time in the tattoo shop on the corner of Diagon and Knockturn Alley and was planning on securing a more permanent job there this year so that by the time he was in sixth year he could leave school to work there full time.

Stephanie was in fourth year with Ian and was a Knockturn Alley local, born and bred. Her family's trade was in illegal things, her specialty was alcohol, which she supplied to the Halloween party. She lived with her dad down the Alley.

Anna's dream was to finish school, move to the states and become a teacher herself. She was in fifth year and only hung around with the others because "they're good fun", she informed me with a wink. She was a very out and very proud lesbian to the dismay of her "pureblood, homophobic, no good family".

Scabior and Sky were both orphans. Scabior grew up in a dodgy area of East London. His father had been a drunk and his mother had murdered him and been sent to Azkaban when Scabior was only four. She later died of 'unknown' causes but it was clear that she had suffered from a severe mental illness. After that Scabior had been sent to live with his uncle in a townhouse near Knockturn Alley. His uncle was also an alcoholic and was hardly ever around. When he was, he abused his nephew and brought him down Knockturn Alley with him, teaching him to gamble.

As Scabior was left alone much of the time, he learned to fend for himself and wandered the streets of London which is where he found Sky. Tristan 'Sky' Skyler grew up living it rough on London's harshest streets. He didn't know his parents but supposed he was pureblood since he had been with a primarily Slytherin group of ruffians since birth. Sky and Scabe found each other when they were six years old and immediately became best friends. As neither of them ever went to school, they helped each other learn to read and write. This they did mainly through music. Sky found an old guitar in a dump and Scabe's uncle turned out to have a surprisingly extensive music collection which the two boys listened to and learned to play while the man was out. By doing this, they had given themselves a means to an end, they could go out busking on the streets. As they got older, they frequented Knockturn Alley more where they could spend their money and earn more by gambling or doing odd jobs for people. In this way, they built up reputations for themselves, they became known. Last summer, Tiberius Scabior's uncle was found dead. The boys were fifteen. No one came to send Scabe away like they did when he was four. The two orphans moved into the house and made it their own. They had a place to live, they were earning money, and they were moving up the ranks down Knockturn Alley.

Ian and Anna told me all of this, Sky and Scabior hated talking about their past.

"Never call the man Tiberius, he hates it, ok? Scabe or Scabior. Also, Sky, not Tristan. That one's less strict but still," I was under strict instructions to follow these rules. And thus I had become part of their group. Just before we broke up for the Christmas Holidays, Ian asked if I wanted to go to a Christmas party at Scabe and Sky's. The two of us had unofficially 'gone out' for about a month after Halloween but decided it suited each other more to be friends. Just after we had decided this though, Ian brought me just outside the common room, into one of the more secluded chambers in the dungeons, and gave me this speech about how he felt there was something else he needed to do before we 'split up', how I was a beautiful girl and I looked and acted more mature than I was. How he was afraid of me coming into the world of his friends, but if I was going to do it how he wanted me to be safe, for me not to get hurt. And so, in true Hogwarts student style, that is how Ian and I ended up having sex in a broom cupboard, and how I lost my virginity, aged thirteen. Lissa freaked out when I told her, of course. She and Blaise went steady right up to the Christmas break.

So, Lissa and I stayed at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays. On Christmas eve we sneaked out of the Hogwarts grounds (easier said than done in high heeled boots) and were met by Scabior who apparated us to his house.

With a crack we appeared on a cold, empty London street. Lissa and I had side-along apparated before so were used to the sensation. No music or any sign of a party could be heard or seen from where we were.

"It's just here," said Scabe, jogging along with us trailing behind him to a house near the corner of the road. A broken streetlamp stood outside it. There was no name or number on the gate. The little garden on either side of the path was thick with weeds. The walls were grey brick. We climbed a set of steep steps. The lights were on in the house and people could be seen to move behind the blinds. Scabe opened the door, black paint was peeling off to reveal the pale, sun-bleached wood underneath. The hallway was packed, yet still no sound could be heard, until we stepped over the threshold and all of a sudden loud music with a heavy beat pounded our eardrums. Scabior turned to us and in our ears he said one word before disappearing with a smirk on his face; "Welcome."

I don't think either of us were prepared for this party. Lissa and I came from relatively sheltered backgrounds and the Slytherin party was nothing compared to this. Heavily tattooed and pierced people traipsed about the place drunkenly, as did half naked people. Bongs and beer bottles scattered the living room floor. The ceiling could not be seen for a layer of smoke. The place was small and tightly packed. A group of men, who were later confirmed to yes, indeed, be werewolves , raided the fridge, moshed in the hall and swung from the lamp in the sitting room, ripping it from the ceiling. People were already passed out here and there whilst others groped each other in corners. Though I was pretty nervous initially and stood still in the doorway with Lissa for about five minutes, I had that same feeling as I did the first time I set foot in Knockturn Alley. Of belonging. I wasn't scared of these crazy wolfish men, though I knew I should be. The drug scattered rooms didn't shock me, though I knew they should. I could tell Lissa was less at ease so I dragged her in what I presumed was the general direction of the kitchen, in search of something to drink. On our way we met Anna, already completely pissed, with a girl on her arm.

"Lissa! RICK! Guys, c'mere, look who it is, s'Lissa 'n' Rick!" she slurred in the general direction of the people around her. This was met with some people shaking our hands, some hugs, and some raising of bottles. As well as a general shout of welcome. Anna removed herself from the girl who was sucking on her neck, took our hands and led us to the kitchen where she popped the caps off of two bottles of some unmarked liquid and gave them to us saying, "From Steph.." and off she went again.

We ventured into the sitting room where we found Ian on a sofa and sat down next to him. He had a spliff in one hand that was no longer lit and hugged us with the other arm upon seeing us.

"You made it!" he exclaimed. He tried to inhale from the spliff in his hand and upon failing began what looked like an arduous search for a lighter. I found one on the coffee table and handed it to him. He grinned in thanks. Lit up. Inhaled. Passed it to me. The smoke filled my lungs and burnt my throat. Lissa coughed and handed it back. We spent about an hour on the sofa with Ian. He introduced us to everyone that walked past. Ian and I smoked more. We all drank more. And then the music picked up and we got up to dance. As steady as we could we moved to the beat. People joined us, grabbing our waists, spilling their drinks on us. And the night went on like that.

At some point later I had lost Lissa, I think she went off to dance with some foreign wizard with cats eyes. Scabe descended the stairs and grabbed my hand.

"Hey, do you wanna see something?" He pulled me back up the stairs with him and into the bathroom. In here he had gathered a small group. They all seemed to be gathered around the toilet. A guy, probably around 22 with long black hair, was on his knees, moving some white powder around on the lid of the toilet with a knife. They all looked up to see Scabe enter.

"Purest cocaine you will find this side of the globe, ladies and gents." They all looked back to the white powder.

"No kidding, where'd you get it?" asked a skinny bloke with stringy hair. Scabe just tapped his nose. "Who's the chick?" the guy asked instead, looking me slowly up and down. "She's hot."

"This is Ricki." The chap on his knees snorted a line then looked at me, blinking and sniffing.

"A ride," he said.

"Yeah, well, hands off, ok?" There was a general nod around the room and Scabe left.

"Come 'ere, love, 'ave a taste," said the guy with the black hair, pulling me down beside him. With his knife he cut another line of the fine white powder and before I really knew what I was doing, it was in my lungs and in my bloodstream, pumping through me.


	9. Hungover on Christmas

Apparently even the consumption of drugs and alcohol couldn't make me sleep for longer than a few hours as I woke up on Christmas Day before the others. I was curled up on one side of Scabe's battered old couch, Ian on the other. It was probably the pounding in my head that woke me. The room smelled horrific, making me want to vomit. The sick that was spewed over the corner of the coffee table and onto the floor didn't help. My throat felt raw and my muscles ached.

I didn't remember an awful lot from the previous night after the coke taking incident in the bathroom.. Some vague things swam by in my mind, Lissa and Anna dancing on a table.. I remembered some guy talking to me, no idea what about or what he looked like but I think his hand went up my skirt, and then he started to lead me off somewhere, which I seemed to think was a great idea, and then Sky came and told the guy to piss off, which in the moment I didn't understand but upon recollection was greatly thankful for.

I dragged myself up from the couch and stumbled to the bathroom, eyes squinting through the dizziness, trying not to step on any glass or anyone. Somebody I didn't know was crying on the stairs and somebody was comforting them. They moved to let me pass so I didn't stop. Upon my arrival in the bathroom I found Lissa, fast asleep in the bath. Briefly I wondered how she ended up in there before I threw up in the sink. The colours were fascinating, truly. I grabbed the towel from its hanger and flopped down on the floor, propped up against the cool wall, towel in my lap. And there I dozed in and out of consciousness until Anna came and found us a few hours later.

"Good lord, look at you two," she said with a twisted smile, looking from one of us to the other. "Congratulations, you survived your first Knockturn Alley party." Lissa groaned.

"Why are you so perky?" I croaked.

"My dear, I'm always perky," the blonde winked down at me then handed us each a vial of green liquid. "Merry Christmas! That'll undo whatever the fuck you did last night." She smiled and sat on the corner of the bath whilst we knocked the potion back. For a second, the dizziness and queasiness all seemed terribly worse but then it passed and I felt completely normal. Miracles occur.

"What time is it?" asked Lissa whose hair looked like she had been dragged through a bush backwards.

"Around one-ish," answered Anna, getting up to leave. "Come on, the others are up. Scabe's kicking everyone put." She turned back to us, "don't worry, that doesn't include us."

Downstairs it was quite a sight to see the 16 year old man-child, in his rocker-esque clothes, shooing people out of his house. A few last stragglers scampered out carrying their belongings and thanking Scabe. When they were all gone, he shut the front door and turned to us. There was only six of us left; Lissa, Scabe, Ian, Anna, Steph and I. Sky had gone out to buy some food, apparently.

"Well thank fuck that's over," Scabe said, running a hand through his hair. He looked between Lissa and I and chuckled. "Alright there, girls?" We nodded awkwardly.

We all sat down in the front room, which was shockingly clear of the remnants from last night. Magic was handy for situations like that, I supposed. Steph left soon after, she had to meet her dad down the Alley to "set shit up". Ian went with her. Every year the residents of Knockturn Alley, and people who spent so much time there they might as well have lived there, put on some Christmas festivities. Who would have known? Lissa and I were invited to join in. We were told it'd basically be a continuation of the night before, but less crazy and more Christmassy. Sky soon returned with the ingredients of a full English breakfast and Anna and I ended up helping him cook it.

After this brunch, Sky went off again and Scabe went with him. They had to "get some business done". That left just Anna, Lissa and I.

"So! You two can't just live in those dresses. You smell like booze, among other things." Anna smiled at us. "Why don't you guys have showers, I have some clothes upstairs you could probably wear." So, up we went to the spare bedroom (the house had three, Sky's and Scabe's both on the third floor, the other on the second beside the bathroom.) and Anna spent a good twenty minutes rooting through a small suitcase of her clothing and holding things up to us, before handing me a woollen dress and tights and Lissa a Christmassy jumper and dark skinny jeans. "You can wear the shoes you have on," she said, looking at Lissa wedges and my heeled boots. Lissa went off to the bathroom she slept in to shower and Anna ushered me into Scabe's ensuite with an "I'm sure he won't mind".

When we were clean and dressed, Anna took us back into the spare bedroom, dried and curled or hair and then got to work on our sparkling Christmas makeup. When she was done, she took a step back and looked at us proudly. "Fabulous, darlings, absolutely spiffing! Now, shall we?"

We took the floor network to Knockturn Alley. We stepped out of the emerald flames into a dusty, empty room with one grimy window. "This way," Anna said, leading us out onto a sort of covered balcony that ran right round an open air market square. This must have been the black market where Steph's family worked. I didn't know what I was expecting it to be like, but this certainly wasn't it. From the outside, the whole place looked like any other market you'd find in London, though people were probably scarier looking and the goods being sold were, in some cases, truly bizarre. But as we went downstairs and moved through the crowds we met some people I recognised from last night, we chatted, everyone was considerably less drunk/high, and everyone was generally pretty nice.. I didn't think I'd ever say that about any Slytherin or anyone I met down Knockturn Alley, but it was true.

Anna introduced us to an elderly witch whom everyone called Tea. She was short and had long, tangled grey hair. She was spit roasting a whole pig in the middle of the square. I was told that Tea supplied food goods and tea (hence the name) to the Alley, and would often cook there in the middle of the market. Apparently not always completely normal foods (she often cooked with rats and mice) but delicious nonetheless.

Two pillars marked the entrance to the market. Outside were the cold grey cobble stones and walls I associated Knockturn Alley with, but this place must have been deep into the Alley because I never knew it even existed before. On the far side of the square, under the balcony, was a pair of purple doors, behind which I was told was "The Club". The place had a stage and a bar and was used for a lot of different things, mainly concerts and burlesque shows, and sometimes meetings. Downstairs was the ship club/brothel. Opposite the market was the pub - "The Thestral's Head". This looked like any other pub might, but was considerably grimier and very dimly lit. The front of the pub was open with lots of tables but at the back, closer to the bar, was a smaller, cosier area with two big armchairs that overlooked the rest of the pub, like thrones. Scabe sat in one. Anna and Lissa squeezed into a booth that was already filled with people. There didn't appear to be anywhere else to sit, so I just sat down in the other armchair. Everyone looked at me.

"Em.. What..?"

"Nuffunk," piped up a gangly fellow with a lot of spots whom I met the night before, Stanley Shunning, "'s'just no-one usually sits there."

"Oh, I-"

"It's ok," Scabe cut in quickly, giving Stan a foul look. "You're fine, love. Anna was giving you the tour, was she?" I nodded, not sure what just happened.

The rest of the day passed rather pleasantly. Everyone tucked into the pig when it was ready, the pub handed out free mulled wine, somebody had got a few boxes of Christmas crackers, and later, Scabe and Sky got up to sing and play some guitar. Their performance made me die a little bit. I loved singing and prided myself on my voice, but hot damn they were good. When it was getting late, Scabe apparated Lissa and I back to Hogsmeade. We hadn't meant to be gone that long and people would probably start asking questions if we didn't turn up for Christmas dinner when we said we were staying in Hogwarts for Christmas. Before he apparated away again, he told us the same sort of thing would be happening for New Year's and we should go. We tried not to let show how happy we were at being invited out again.

Christmas at Hogwarts was a strange affair. The castle was beautiful all decorated and everything but the lack of people made the place quite eerie. Nearly everyone had decided to go home because of the Chamber of Secrets thing. It was easy to forget about it down in the Slytherin common rooms where nobody had anything to be scared about because everyone had magical blood, and a pet of Salazar Slytherin would surely never attack one of his own students. But when I saw Kyle or one of the others around the castle, I couldn't help but let my stomach twist up in fear that one of them would be next, and they'd be worse than petrified.

The next few days passed quietly enough. Everyone sat together at meals and it was amusing to have so many close encounters with the teachers so many times in a row, especially when some of them had had too much wine (*cough* Flitwick and Sprout at Christmas dinner *cough*).

Year's Eve came, Lissa and I once again snook out of the castle to meet Scabe. He brought us to Knockturn Alley where the celebrations were already underway. There was a countdown to midnight and two young werewolves who were stood next two Lissa and I grabbed us and snogged us. Other than that, the night was, again, much more civilised than Christmas Eve (though said wolves and their pack did start howling at the New Year's moon at one stage). Lissa and I decided to crash in Sky and Scabe's spare bedroom as Anna and Ian were staying with Steph. Just before we left the Alley, Scabe slung an arm around my shoulder, we were standing on the balcony overlooking the crowd, and he said: "Tomorrow, I shall show you my Kingdom," gesturing to the crowd below and to the market and Alley beyond.

What I had been previously told, about Scabe climbing the ranks down Knockturn Alley, was true. But for Scabe, it seemed, by all accounts, that he had already just about reached the top.


	10. The Kingdom

I woke up the next morning before Lissa, got dressed and went downstairs. To my surprise, Scabe was already awake and in the kitchen making himself some coffee. He had baggy tartan pyjamas on and, despite the cold winters morning, no shirt, a fact that I tried to ignore as he spoke to me.

"You still up for a proper tour of the Alley?" he asked, leaning against the counter, arms crossed over his (rather buff) chest, watching me make myself some tea (it was rather unsettling). I nodded. "Good. I'll get dressed and then we can go."

"What about Lissa?"

"Sky's still asleep too and Anna's coming over later, she'll be fine," he replied and then off he went to get dressed, taking his coffee with him and leaving me with little butterflies in my stomach.

When Scabe was ready to go, he apparated us to a quiet little park I knew was near Diagon Alley. We stopped in a shop and he bought us some pastries for breakfast and then we took a route I was very familiar with through the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. We zig-zagged through the bustling people and eventually cut off into Knockturn Alley which was much quieter.

"That's the place Ian works," Scabe said, nodding to the tattoo parlour as we walked by. As we meandered down the dark alleyway he told me about each shop we came across and sometimes had little stories about the owners. When we reached a shop called Borgin and Burke's he took me inside to introduce me to the owner, a small, greasy old man who grasped my hand a little too enthusiastically. When we left, Scabe said: "'e's a slimy git, Borgin, but pay 'im enough and 'e'll do just about anything for you, which can come in 'andy."

The further down the Alley we went, the more normal the shops became as we reached a part where smaller alleyways that lead to people's houses split off the main. A little further down was the market and a little way down past that Scabe pointed out an unusual set of steps that led to nowhere carved into the wall.

"Me and Sky used to come and sit here all the time.. still do if we have nothing better to do." He climbed onto the steps and pulled me up after him to look over the wall. On the other side was what looked like a little square garden that had completely overgrown and was now covered in weeds. It was surrounded by walls on all sides. "Used to be a rose garden," Scabe said, jumping back down and continuing walking.

This side of the Alley was completely empty and there didn't seem to be any shops or anything but we kept walking. To tell the truth, I started to get a little bit scared as the Alley seemed to get even darker though it was the middle of the day. Eventually we came to a dead end. I stared in horrified fascination at this final wall of the Alley. It was entirely made up of skulls and other bones.

"Are they...?" I had a terrible urge to reach out and touch the wall.

"Real? Yeah.. The wall's made up of the bones of criminals. Sort of a statement, I suppose. It was originally put here by the Ministry, way, way back in the day, as a way to tell people if you do bad things, this is what it'll do to you.. Or summink like that. Anyway, it sort of backfired on them cos the people who lived and worked down here, the real criminals, took it on themselves to add to the wall any time any of them died, it became a real honour, something people wanted, to be part of the wall, part of the Alley, after they died. And then," I flinched as Scabe pricked himself on one of the sharper bones that jutted out and smeared his blood on one of the skulls, "they turned the wall into a gate." I watched as the wall, like the wall that led into Diagon Alley, shifted and folded back on itself to form a little archway. On the other side, a dog with two heads with piggish snouts and ferocious teeth, snapped and barked at us, pulling on the chain it was tied to. "Hush!" Scabe shouted back at it, throwing it the end of his pastry. "Dog's alright, sometimes," Scabe said, rolling his eyes as he looked back at the beast and it wagged its tail at him.

The Alley led us down a steep (and very long) flight of steps that went underground. As we descended, Scabe told me more: "So this part of the Alley is as old as London town itself. When the muggles built their port, the wizards built this place where their ships could dock."

"Underground?" I asked skeptically.

"Mm.. Gave them more room and it was easier to link up directly with Diagon Alley."

"But.. How did-?"

"The boats? Not hard to make a boat sail underwater, love, when you have magic." We reached the end of the steps which opened out onto a strip of water big enough to hold about four fullsized sailing ships. Some small boats were docked there now. It was like an oversized sewer, the air was damp and it smelled like seaweed. "There are storerooms down there and.. Well there should be port guards. 'ang on," Scabe said, pointing to the left. "Oi! Saul!" he shouted. We heard a crash coming from the storerooms and then out stumbled a tall man wearing a long coat and a fisherman's hat, doing up his belt in the process. He jogged up to us.

"Ah, Scabe! Wasn't expecting you! Heh..heh.." Scabe did not seem amused as he dodged a pat on the arm.

"Just showing Ricki here around." Saul's bearded face smiled at me and he waved. "Hey, Saul," Scabe said, getting Saul to stop staring at me.

"Yes, Scabe!"

"Get back to work."

"Ah, yes, indeed." And off he jogged back to the storerooms, waving goodbye at me. Again it struck me how easily Scabe managed to boss people around who could easily be twice his age, and they listened to him. He led me down to the right then and we came across a cluster of empty dungeon-like rooms. Here we stopped and sat down on a pair of barrels and Scabe continued with his history lesson (we certainly didn't learn all this in History of Magic in school!).

"So this place was really successful as a port until it started to get raided by pirates- yes wizards have pirates too- and they started to take over this whole Alley and it was decided that this place couldn't be used to supply Diagon Alley or anywhere else anymore. That's when Knockturn Alley started to become what it is today. I think when they put up that wall they thought it would stop people using this port, but obviously it didn't." Scabe paused for a second and looked at me with a frown, as if deciding whether he should continue.

"How come you're sort of in charge around here?" I asked and he smiled a little.

"Well I'll get to that. You see, eh.. In the.. Criminal, ahem, world.. Well, naturally there's a hierarchy. You can see it in the muggle world, you know like the mafia and stuff?" I nodded and he went on. "Well it's the same here.. All over the world, anywhere there's a magical community, more often than not they have their own version of a Knockturn Alley. And in these Knockturn Allies all over the world, well they all have someone who's in charge and runs the place and then they have their people and yeah.. So then between all of these people who, I guess, lead their own little communities, they themselves have a hierarchy, someone who's more powerful than all the others. It's very.. Political.. Anyway, then you have the other guys, mainly powerful dark wizards like You-Know-Who who may or may not be part of the Knockturn Alley of wherever they're from, but they rise up and take over everyone." We both sat quietly for a minute.

"So you.. You're.. Where do you fit in?"

"Well when I was younger, my uncle, before he turned into a sloppy alcoholic," Scabe's knuckles went white, I didn't expect him to start talking about this, "he was pretty well respected around here anyway, before he became a drunken arse, and then he started to bring me around here, people expected a lot of me. So as I was growing up it was easy for me to get jobs because of that. I travelled a lot with people through this port, I won a lot of card games and I always won any fight that I got in. Built up people's respect for me. I don't know. My uncle was actually in charge around here at one point, before he the pressure got to him and he started messing things up. After that nobody really took charge so it was sort of up for grabs and when my uncle died everyone just naturally turned to me."

"Even though you're so young?" Scabe let out a little laugh, not a happy one.

"Age doesn't matter around here." And with that he led me back out of the dungeons and the port, back up the mountain of stairs, past the dog with two heads, through the wall of bones and back to the market. He introduced me to everyone at the market and showed me The Club.

"And that's pretty much it," he said, leading me back out of the purple doors after introducing me to some of the burlesque dancers that were practicing inside. As we headed towards the pub with the idea of meeting Sky and the others to get lunch, Scabe was pulled aside by one of the people from the market. "You go ahead," he said, "I'll just be a minute."

As I walked towards the pub I was suddenly pushed against on of the pillars that held up the balcony, two hands held me there.

"And who do we have here? A new, young face.." A tall man, covered in hair who could only be a werewolf moved in closer to me, pushing his large body against mine and sniffing my neck."

"Greyback!" I heard Scabior roar from behind the wolfish man. He turned to sneer at Scabe, still pressing me to the pillar with a hand on my chest.

"Is this your new whore, Scabior? They're getting younger each day," he laughed. "I like that."

"Get your paws off her, Fen."

"It's ok, Scabe," I said calmly. I had heard stories about the monstrous Fenrir Greyback from my mother being an Auror and from other kids at Hogwarts. When Lissa and I were younger we found out that our parents' friend Remus Lupin had been turned into a werewolf by none other than Greyback, something they didn't plan on telling us til we were much older. I should have been terrified, the stories did scare me, but now that the man himself was practically on top of me, I was remarkably unafraid.

"Ah, Scabior, your whore likes me better," Greyback snorted, stroking my cheek with a claw.

"I'm not scared of you, you know," I said. Greyback stopped and came very close to my face, baring his pointed teeth.

"You should be, my dear." I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled. That is when my knee went between his legs, he let go of me with a curse, and I strutted off towards the pub again. I could tell there was a stunned silence behind me, people had stopped to watch what the wolf would do to the new girl.

"Not so sure about that, Fen," I could hear the smirk in Scabe's voice as he followed me. To my surprise, Greyback didn't run after me and kill me right there and then.

"I'll be seeing you around then, little girl," was all he called after us.

**Author's note: Thanks to those who reviewed, keep them coming, they're what spur me on! I know Ricki is very young here, I had a bit of an issue with that when I started to think of this story, but I stuck with it because it is what makes all that happens next happen, and when I thought about it, I actually know people who started to drink and have sex etc when they were the same age as Rick. Thanks again and hope you enjoy :) **


	11. A Thestral's Summer

The rest of the school year was pretty tense as more people were petrified and still nobody was caught. Sky and Scabior, led by Anna, tried their best to just put their heads down and study for their upcoming OWL exams. The boys, however, had come up with a New Year's resolution of becoming animagi. They had met a man down the Alley who would teach them how to do it. Anna and Steph rolled their eyes when the boys started talking about their plans but Lissa and I begged to be included in them.

So, on a blustery February night, we headed to the Alley to meet this animagi man and learn to become one ourselves. Scabe had organised to meet the guy down in the dungeons of the port and so there we headed. The man turned out to be a very old, very..robust Japanese man with thick bushy eyebrows and a thick bushy beard. It was no wonder that his animagus was a black bear. Thankfully his accent wasn't too strong and he had good English so we could understand his instructions. Scabe had payed him to brew the potion for us which the man dished out between us and told us to put a piece of our own hair in and drink. We then had the not-so-simple task of producing a corporeal patronus. A good two hours we spent trying again and again until we all had produced one. Instead of just thinking of our happiest thought we had to 'pour the essence of our souls' into the patronus so we could see what our animagus would be. After tthis, the man suddenly cut the lesson off and told us he'd meet us again the week after. He didn't want to strain our souls.

After three more sessions of meditation and then failed attempts of becoming our animagus selves where only a leg or an arm would turn, we all managed to change into fully fledged animagi forms. It was very exciting. We thanked the man profusely and he wished us well on our journies. To celebrate, we decided to go to a forest so we could properly get a feel for what being an animagus was like. Sky, rather fittingly I thought, was a hawk and took great joy in soaring high into the sky and plummeting back down to us. Ian was a bobcat and Scabe was a lion (which amused me as I thought about how he talked about his 'kingdom'). Lissa was a wolf, which she was chuffed about, and I was a thestral. It was bizarre because Ian couldn't see me when I changed as he hadn't seen anybody die (I presumed Sky and Scabe had seen their fair share of death growing up the way they did, and Lissa had seen her grandfather die). Nonetheless I also enjoyed soaring through the sky with Sky. After this, Ian suggested we get tattoos to commemorate this occasion. He said he could do them for free, as practise. I got a thestral across my righthand side of my ribcage (yes, very very large and painful for a first tattoo but I didn't care) and Lissa got a paw print on her lower back. Sky got a small bird on his shoulder and Scabe refused let Ian anywhere near him with a needle so Ian just doodled a little bobcat on his own arm.

Being an animagus, for me at least, meant I didn't have to rely on others to apparate me places. I also had the added benefit that not many people could even see me when I changed. It gave me a lot of freedom, especially when the summer came and I had to sneak out of the house at night to go meet my friends down the Alley, or I had to lie to my mother and tell her I was meeting up with Kyle or Luke or someone when really I was flying off to the Alley or to Draco's house or Blaise's.

It was the summer after second year that my father broke out of Azkaban prison and put the wizarding world into a frenzy. Yes, my father was the infamous Sirius Black. He and my mother had been in the same year in Hogwarts together and had fallen in love. They were best friends with James and Lily Potter and had made them my godparents and they in turn were Harry's godparents. When James and Lily died and my dad was sent to prison, my mother, distraught as she was, was determined to raise Harry for her best friends, but Dumbledore had been quite firm when he intended Harry to live with his aunt and uncle, explaining how he would be safer.

As everyone blamed my father for the death of his friends, they also blamed my mother as surely the wife of such a killer could not be trusted. The fact that she visited him in Azkaban and refused to believe any bad word she heard about him, didn't help. Eventually, when the wizarding world settled down again, she was able to work without being heckled by coworkers.

So naturally, my father's break from prison, aside from nearly giving the poor woman a heatattack, meant all eyes were turned on her. Again, the fact that she visited him only weeks before didn't help. However, being a senior member of the Auror department had its benefits, and although she was strongly advised against it, she placed herself firmly at the head of the search for my father.

It was a few weeks after he had broken out that I came home from a day out with Kyle and Lissa (my attempt at escaping the constant gossip about Sirius Black that went on down Knockturn Alley, no one down there knew I was related to him yet) and I found my parents sitting casually at my kitchen table. As y'do, no bother. I nearly fell over. I had been allowed to visit my father because back when I was a toddler and he first was sent to prison I would cry nonstop for hours, screaming for my daddy which broke my mother's heart and she eventually caved in and brought me to him. So I was used to his skeletal look and long, matted hair, but seeing him like this outside of Azkaban just seemed too jarring. I burst out crying and he caught me in his thin arms.

When I had regained control of my emotions we sat back down at the table. "I can't stay here for long, my darling," he said, "I just wanted to say that I love you, both of you, no matter what may happen." He looked me in the eye when he said this. The last time I visited him in Azkaban, I had to have my mother tell him I was in Slytherin because I couldn't face doing it myself. I knew my mother wouldn't be happy about my being in Slytherin but I knew he would be even more disappointed. I wandered down the corridor of the prison while she told him but I could still hear the hushed argument that followed. When my mother called me back, he took my hands through the bars of his cell and told me that it was ok and he was still proud of me but he didn't look me in the eyes when he said it so it meant a lot to me to hear that from him at my kitchen table.

He left soon after that and I could tell both me and my mother felt a little lost without him there. It was that evening that I went up to my parents room and rummaged through the bottom of their wardrobe to pull out my dad's old leather jacket. I started to wear it everywhere after that. My mum didn't say anything about it but she did hold me at arms length and just smile sadly for a while before I went out the next day.

I spent a lot of time with Ian that summer, letting him practise his piercings on me and letting him colour in my ribs and hips with tattoos of quotes and other random things that I liked or doodles that he drew. It was a good way to pass the time and avoid conversations about my dad. I found that drugs were also a nifty distraction. Scabe showed me all about his drug dealing business, how he got things to the Alley, who he bought from and who he sold to. He even put me in charge of some deals which meant I started to earn some money. I also put it upon myself to clean the entire pub because I didn't particularly enjoy drinking out of grimy glasses and I talked to Scabe about clearing out the old rose garden so we could get it to grow again. Sex, that too was a nice distraction. I got to know more people around the Alley, I became more comfortable in my surroundings, and that made me chattier (that had nothing to do with the drugs I was on, nooo). And then, just led to another. With several people. And then word got out and people started coming to me. Like Scabe said, age didn't seem to matter around there. Besides, I looked much older than I was, and people didn't have to know. I started to hang out with the burlesque girls (and the strippers) and they gave me tips and brought me shopping (many corsets and shoes were bought) and then one day, after a particularly rough hour with an American fellow, I noticed some money had been left on the table in one of the rooms that the pub rented out (which I used quite regularly), but the chap had already left, so I kept it. It was a nice little bonus.

Towards the end of the summer, Lissa and I found out that Remus Lupin would be our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, something we were initially ecstatic about until we started thinking about how he would see us hanging out with all of our Slytherin friends and how weird that would be. We figured we'd just have to grin and bare it. Did our parents really expect us not to have friends in our own house?


	12. A Break

The beginning of my third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was very bizarre, to say the least, what with Remus being one of our teachers and rumours about my father flying about hither and thither. The latter was particularly frustrating, especially when stupid people came up with stupid conspiracy theories.

On our first morning back, our housemates were discussing our new professor over breakfast, his raggedy appearance, guageing how good he would be compared to our last two DADA teachers. They hushed as he descended from the staff table and walked towards the Slytherin one. Much to the confusion and disgruntlement of our peers, Lissa and I got up upon Professor Lupin's approach to hug him and ask him how his new job was going so far.

"I've only been here for one night so far, girls."

"We know, it's just strange seeing you up there with all the teachers," Lissa said.

"Yes, well, it's strange for me too. I'll leave you to your breakfast," Remus said, smiling down at us, "and I'll see you in class," he said as he walked away. The others started at us, some with open mouths, as we sat back down.

"Family friend," I explained and was met with continued stares and a few "uhuh"s.

Other than that the school year started off normally, with lots of homework and not much else to do. Remus turned out to be an excellent teacher, as we knew he would. Lissa was still on the quidditch team and training soon started up again. The first real excitement of the year came when our year was allowed go to Hogsmeade for the first time. Lissa and I decided to spend the trip with Kyle and the others. We spent the majority of our time stocking up on sweets (Lissa made a major chocolate haul) and visiting Zonko's joke shop and then got butterbeers from The Three Broomsticks. Still I couldn't escape chatter about the break from Azkaban as my father's picture was all over the little village. Kyle knew he was my dad but the others didn't so thankfully he kept changing the topic of conversation.

I was glad when Halloween came, which meant it was time for another big Slytherin Halloween party, and I saw it as a proper break from everything.

As was per usual now, Lissa and I and the rest of the girls all got ready down in the girls' dorms. Lissa had discovered a loose stone in the wall in the girls' common room behind which she was able to stash bottles of alcohol and mounds of chocolate, both of which came in handy when someone got rather emotional. We could all sit around in front of the fire and drink and stuff our faces with chocolate. Now though, heels and makeup and clothes and homework was scatter everywhere.

When we eventually made our way upstairs, the party went by as any other Slytherin party did. Lissa danced with multiple people but as she and Blaise had decided to get back together she inevitably ended up with him. About an hour into the party I had become extremely bored. I wandered over to the drinks table, which somebody had spilled their drink all over, and started -mindedly began to mix some random liquors together. I didn't notice Scabe come up behind me and spilled my concoction when he tipped my arm.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Scabe!"

"Sorry," he said with a chuckle, "bored?"

"How could you tell," I said sarcastically. "Have you any...?" I trailed off hopefully. He just nodded and patted one of his pockets before walking off towards the exit with me following close behind. All of the little alcoves in the dungeons seemed to be filled with people so we ended up ducking into a broom cupboard. Once inside, Scabe took out a little sachet of the same white powder from his Christmas party, poured out two little mounds onto a little wooden chair and snorted one of them. When I had taken my share we both sat against the walls of the cupboard whilst we waited for the drug to take effect.

"Shall we go back to the party?" I said. Scabe nodded and got up, bouncing on the balls of his feet a bit.

"Fuck this shit makes me horny," he said, pulling me up to my feet.

"Mm I know, same," I said, not thinking much of his statement as I turned to leave. Then I paused and turned back to him. And then suddenly my face was on his face, tongues in each others mouths and I was climbing on top of him as he sat down on the chair. A good five minutes of intense tonsil hockey later and his hand slithered under my dress, pulling on my underwear before sliding under them too. As his fingers, shall we say, explored me further, I reached down to unbuckle his belt. Sliding off his lap, and kneeling between his legs, I undid his pants completely. Dick in hand, I pumped until he was well and truly hard, using my tongue to help, running it along his shaft and over its head. When he had had enough of this he pulled me to my feet roughly and slammed me against the wall, hooking my legs around his waist and making me gasp loudly as he shoved his way into me. We stayed like this, him slamming me repeatedly into the wall, until he came. He then pulled out gently and let me down onto my feet, kissing me even more gently and once again sliding a hand up my dress to finish me off.

_**Meanwhile** _

"Are Scabe and Rick over by the drinks?" Anna asked, flopping down amongst the pillows in our usual alcove in the Slytherin common room.

"Dunno, haven't seen them," said Lissa, a dessert from the feast earlier in her hand, a chunk taken out of it. She sat down with Anna as Blaise and the others came in.

"Has anyone seen Rick?" Anna asked them.

"I think Fizz said he'd seen her- FIZZY! C'M'ERE!" answered Ian, calling for his seventh year friend. A tall boy with broad shoulders and long, messy black hair bounded up to the entrance of the little cave. "You seen Rick?"

"Yeah, she left with Scabe a while ago."

"Probably gone off to get high," Steph said, rolling her eyes.

"Someone saw them going into a broom cupboard, real sneaky like, trying not to be seen," Fizz said, a cheeky grin on his face, waggling his eyebrows.

"This Rick 'n' Scabe?" asked a boy from fourth year, surname Stubble, swinging into the cave. "They're back. Hah, oh shit no way, they're snogging by the drinks!"

"They what!?" squeaked Anna.

"I'm not shitting you, look- oh crap, they're coming this way!"

The boys standing in the entrance ducked into the cave and sat down as Scabe and I walked in, attempting (and probably failing) to conceal our mischievous grins.

Anna cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows. "And where exactly have you two been?" she asked in a very motherly fashion. "You were seen to be going into a broom cupboard together."

"Were we now?" Scabe said, sitting down. I stayed standing, motioning that we had been snorting coke.

"Mhmm. And what's this about snogging by the drinks table?" I think it was the grin that fell across my face and my slow laughter that gave us away.

"You did WHAT!? Why!? How..when..Ew, Merlin's beard, no, please say you didn't.." Lissa smacked her hands together and burst out laughing when she realised what had crossed Anna's mind. Again, I think the grin on my face gave us away. Scabe just grabbed my waist and pulled me onto his lap. Anna's voice reached a pitch only audible by dogs. The others laughed at her and looked at us with bemused looks on their faces. Not knowing quite what else to do in such a situation, I turned my head and shoved my tongue down Scabe's throat, throwing up my middle finger in the vague direction of Anna, causing Lissa to laugh even more.

Scabe and I were too caught up in our own little buzz to notice that our friends found the fact that we were practically on top of each other for the majority of the night quite disconcerting.

By the end of the night I was finding it rather difficult to walk, so Scabe offered to carry me to my room. I didn't notice until we were there that Scabe had actually brought me to his room rather than mine (but of course, the boys were not allowed anywhere near the girls dorms). He dropped me on his bed and, being unable to do so myself, took off my shoes. Stripping himself down to his underwear, he closed the curtains around his bed and joined me as I was struggling to undo the zip on my dress. Brushing my hand aside, he undid it with ease and pulled it over my head, tossing it aside, leaving me in nothing but my lacy underwear, and thigh high stockings which he pulled off one by one. Now positioned between my legs, he leaned over me, kissing my neck and sliding off my pants, the head if his dick brushing off my stomach. He covered us with the covers before flipping me over and pressing himself between my legs, rocking the old bed slightly as he went. When he was finished, he lay down beside me and I pulled myself closer to him, flinging an arm and a leg across his body. His arm wrapped around me and I rested my head on his chest, falling asleep to the rhythm of his heart. We stayed like that til I woke up, and it was probably the best night's sleep I had had in.. Well, ever.


	13. An Unexpected Visit

**Author's note: Accidentally left out the canon part where everyone slept in the Great Hall for the night, sorry! Didn't realise til after I had written the last chapter :/ anywho.. we shall continue.. **

Little did we partying Slytherin's know, but that night, Sirius Black managed to break into the castle, slash the portrait of the Fat Lady and disappear again. Apparently Snape had come in to shut the party down and make sure we were all ok, but by that time Scabe and I had already gone downstairs.

I woke up the next morning as Scabior stretched beneath me, yawning. "'ello, beautiful," he said. I sat up, my head spinning. Luckily, he had some of that marvellous green potion that made everything better stashed in his bedside table. As I reached around for my clothes and started to put back on my stockings and underwear, he got up and rummaged in his trunk, throwing me one of his school shirts. I put it on instead of my dress, it was so big on me it ended up being the same length as it anyway. I put my heels back on, kissed him, and left him to get dressed, finding my way back to the common room, earning myself some wolf-whistles as I passed a group of lads.

Back down in the girls' dorms I reckoned I wouldn't have time for breakfast if I showered and got dressed properly (plus I wasn't really arsed, that was just my poor excuse) so, like the filthy skank I was, I just threw my school skirt on over what I already had on, snatched my tie and bag and scuttled off to the Great Hall, heels, makeup and all. It was just potions first class, I didn't think Snape would really give a shit.

I joined my friends at the table just after Scabe got there and sat down next to him, earning raised eyebrows from Anna and a grin from Lissa. "Alright there, Rick? Sad to say you weren't missed much in the dorm last night," she joked. "Jesus, were you just, like, not bothered to really get dressed?" I shook my head and she snorted a laugh. The table's conversation, thankfully, moved on (I think everyone was too tired from last night to really care about Scabe and I at that moment), Blaise started talking to Lissa, flirting really, and Scabe started talking to me about Knockturn Alley business. Just as he was telling me about some contract or other, someone came up behind me and squeezed my sides.

"Oh fff-oh my God!" I said, turning around to see who it was.

"Surprise! Jesus, Rick, why do you have so much makeup on?" It was my mother, pulling a gobsmacked me into a hug.

"Mum!" Lissa said, hearing the commotion and coming around the other side of the table, her mother was also here. They were decked out in their Auror gear.

"Wh-what are you two doing here?" I asked, trying to sound less shocked and more happy. I practically leaped away from the table when I realised how close I was sitting to Scabe.

"WELL, you see, your father sort of broke out of Azkaban and then decided it'd be a good idea to break in here! So we've come to see what the dealio is, yknow, Auror follow ups and whatnot!" Becca said, as loudly as she possibly could, a large grin plastered across her face. I was a pale person as it was, but I'd say I turned a few shades paler right then.

"You two are the same person," I said, pointing between Lissa and her mother. My mother frowned at her best friend.

"Ministry requirements, we had to come to talk to Dumbledore. And, of course, see how this one was doing," she said as she noticed Remus walk towards us.

"And I'm just fine, Scarlett," Remus said, noticing how I was dressed and looking at me like a crazy person.

"Is that you're shirt, Rick? It's very large.." My mother said, following Remus's gaze. I winced.

"Eh, no.." A vague muffled laughter could be heard from my 'friends' behind me but thankfully another Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, turned up before anything else could be said about my attire.

"Ricki, Lissa, good to see you again," Kingsley said, shaking our hands. Lissa and I knew many Aurors through our mothers and Kingsley had worked with them for a long time. He looked at me then very seriously. "Ricki, have you heard any word from your father recently?"

"Kingsley, don't be ridic -" my mother interjected, but the man held up a hand.

"Yes, we phone each other every night," I said blankly. "Really, Kingsley, I've seen my father about one every year or so since I was three, why would we suddenly strike up a correspondence because he broke out of prison?" I said incredulously.

"It's just something we have to check!" he said, holding his hands up and shrugging. "Which reminds me," he turned around to address Fizzy and his friend who were sitting a couple of people down from where I had been. "Benjamin 'Fizzy' Cole and Terrence White?" The two boys nodded, fear flashing across their faces. "Can you tell me where you were two nights ago?" The boys hesitated.

"Why?" asked Fizz.

"It's a simple enough question. I don't see why you'd have a problem answering it. There was an incident that night involving a burglary where several victims ended up hurt. You're names cropped up in the investigation and as our other suspects have all been cleared, here I am." Again, fear flashed across the boys' faces and they hesitated just a beat top long.

"They were here with us, Kingsley." Everyone looked at me. I smiled, "We had a card game, 'highstakes', Lissa's stash of chocolate was up for grabs." The lie slid out as smoothly and as confidently as Scabe's fingers slid over my skin the night before.

"Ha, yeah, Sky beat us bad," Fizz chuckled, patting Sky on the back, Sky in turn smiling back as if he was thinking back on the memory.

"Are you sure, Ricki? With their histories it wouldn't be unlike them.." Kingsley said. I knew full well that they were certainly not innocent, they had come back bragging of their haul straight afterwards.

"Quite sure. You've known me all my life, Kingsley, why would I suddenly start lying?" The man frowned but seemed to take my word for it, walking away from the boys.

"Arresting my students, Kingsley?" Dumbledore had joined us. I could feel my insides squirming for an escape from this situation.

"Not all, Professor."

"Oh! Professor, while I remember, Ricki and I had talked before about her coming into work with me some weekends, to gain some experience. I wondered if that would be at all possible?" I had forgotten about that. We hadn't talked about it since before first year, when I still wanted to be a Gryffindor and follow in my mother's footsteps to become an Auror. No wonder she was pushing that now that I was a Slytherin. Dumbledore caught my eye briefly before saying:

"I think that would be a marvellous idea, Scarlett, once you don't work the poor girl too hard!" I smiled tightly as all the adults turned to look at me. After this exchange, they finally left me be, heading up to Dumbledore's office to conduct their 'follow ups'.

I just stood there, staring after them, my black hair hanging in long curtains around my face.

"Ok, there's about fifty million things I want to say, but first - Did Scabe pass his boss-ness on to you when he came all up in you last night? Cos damn," Anna exclaimed. The others laughed.

"That was pretty fuckin smooth, we owe you big time," said Fizz, holding up a fist for me to bump. I just raised an eyebrow, staring straight ahead of me and he let it drop.

"Ok, so second, your dad is none other than Sirius fucking Black, what the actual fuck. And your mum is an Auror and you're going to work with her. Fuck me."

I didn't respond, I just picked up my bag and started to walk away, only pausing to say in Fizz and Terry's ears in a hushed voice, "You're right. You do owe me." And then off I went, wanting to bury myself somewhere, preferably in bed or some dark hole. The hole school had seen the entire encounter and the gossip would no doubt be mighty soon enough.

"I think I just came a little," Scabe said as he watched me walk off, my heels clacking on the stone floor.

"I think we all did, dear," said Anna.


	14. Gossip Worthy

I didn't go to my first class that day. After I left the Great Hall I headed straight to the common room and to my dorm and into the bathroom where I had every intention of scrubbing myself clean but before I could manage that, I fell back against the locked door and slid to the floor, face crumpling as tears poured out. I had finally cracked after weeks of stressing over my dad and the rest of my family and life in general.

After I had sobbed myself dizzy, I showered and put on some more respectable clothes and waited til I didn't look like I had just wept my face off before attending the rest of my classes. I had lunch in the library and generally tried to avoid people all day but after dinner came the time when I had to face up to the burning curiosity of my friends.

I was sat in the usual cave in the common room with Scabe and his friends. Draco and the others from my own year had joined us for the occasion, it was quite packed. Though he was younger than them, it was easy to tell Draco looked down on the likes of Scabior and Sky, but he didn't dare say much, at least when I was there (one too many slaps over the head had taught him). Everyone made general, mundane conversation, throwing glances here and there at Lissa and I. Then, finally, Anna (good old Anna) came out and said what everyone else was thinking.

"So.. Rick. You're dad's Sirius Black and your mum and Lissa's are Aurors and are looking for him. And you also plan on doing 'work experience' with the Aurors yet you take major drugs and are fucking chief Knockturn Alley scumbag here." For the last part she earned herself a filthy look from Scabe who she just smiled back at. There was a flutter of nervous laughter from the group. I sighed.

"Well, that just about sums it up!" said Lissa.

"Care to elaborate..?" Lissa looked to me.

"Did he really.. You know.. Did your dad..?" piped up Fizz.

"He didn't kill anyone, he wasn't working for Voldemort." There was a general flinch around the room as I spat the words out. After an intense and awkward pause, the powers of word vomit took over and I told them all about my parents, and Lissa's, and their friendship with the Potters and how they were my godparents and how I visited my dad in Azkaban and all of it.

"So.. Yeah.." I smiled a little, "yknow that leather jacket I've been wearing everywhere that's massive on me? The one you guys are obsessed with?" I asked, looking at the boys, "Yeah, that's my dad's.."

"So, wait.. You're not even Irish? You just talk like that because your mum is?" asked Fizz, a puzzled look on his face.

"Really? All of that and that's what you pick up on?" I scoffed.

"Your grandfather, he's Eoghan Power, right?" asked Sky, I nodded. "I remember him from when I was a kid, he made some major arrests down the Alley and around the place. He's fucking terrifying."

"Yup, sounds like him! He worked with Mad-Eye Moody and they were both just the best at what they did really.."

"You really gonna train to be an Auror?" Scabe asked quietly, he hadn't spoken much the whole time.

"Well, I really don't want to.. I mean if I was going to work in ministry at all I'd prefer to work in the Department of Mysteries.. But she said I'd get to work a little bit everywhere.." I trailed off as I looked him in the eye. "I think, in the long term, it will be good. Especially if I'm going to be.. 'hanging out' with you guys. You saw how I got Fizz and Terry out of being bloody arrested. Building up my connections, yo."

"Not turning out to be some sort of evil mastermind at all!" said Anna, raising her eyebrows as Scabe kissed my cheek. I laughed.

"Yeah, it's not like I can speak parseltongue or anything!" Everyone stared at me.

"Usually I'd think you're joking but as you're sort of telling us your life story here.." Ian trailed off. I just shrugged.

"No fucking way," said Steph.

"But.. You're not related to Slytherin, are you?" asked Blaise.

"There are plenty of parselmouths around the world who have nothing to do with Slytherin," I said. "I'd know, I've done enough fucking research.."

"You and Potter can start a club!" said Draco sarcastically.

Lissa told everyone how when we were really young we found a small snakes nest in my garden and I started hissing at it and and the snakes came out. "She's an odd one, is dear old Rick," she said, patting my shoulder.

"I guess there's no use in telling you not to tell anyone.. Just.. Don't let it get to any of the other houses?" Everyone agreed.

Before I retired to my dorm that night, Scabe pulled me aside. "So, Hogsmeade's coming up.. Are you..going?" I smiled, remembering when Ian asked me the same thing.

"Are you asking me out? Bless your face. You know, I have already slept with you. Bit late to be wooing me, don't you think?" Scabe took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"Fuck you.." he muttered.

"I kid, I'm sorry," I said, smirking at his frown.

"So...?"

"It would be my pleasure, good sir, to accompany you to the village of Hogsmeade!" I said dramatically.

"Good." He rolled his eyes, kissed me and strutted off to his own dorm.

The next day I received a letter from my mother, giving me a big spiel about how she knew it wasn't an ideal time but she still wanted me to do the work experience thing, she thought I could handle it, and that she'd collect me on Saturday morning on her way to work.

That Saturday I got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall before anyone else. My mother was there waiting for me, talking to Remus and Dumbledore.

"I thought we'd have breakfast in London," she said with a smile, kissing the top of my head. The headmaster and Remus wished me well and off we headed through the cold, dewy grounds of the school so we could apparate to London. Once in the bustling city, we went to a little muggle café for breakfast (tea and pancakes). My mum tried to asked me how school was going but my answers were vague, any details I gave were about Kyle or one of the others, no Slytherin details.

The Ministry was busy that morning. I almost got lost amongst the crowds of workers coming in to start their day. The Auror department was no better than the entrance hall, possibly worse. Aurors who, by the looks of it, hardly left the office at all, ran around the place, scribbling things on pieces of paper, mounds of paperwork filled every nook and cranny, memos flew like crazy overhead. The minute my mother entered the office, people were jumping on top of her asking her things. at her (very messy) desk until she got a moment and introduced me to the other people in her office. Most of the faces I already knew and there were some people from other departments there too. Everyone was very stressed, to say the least, so I offered to tidy my mum's desk as she was dragged away again.

It was boring work, sitting in the stuffy office, sorting through files and rubbish. Well, it would have been if I didn't keep seeing familiar names cropping up as I filed away different documents. A lot of it was about my father, which was frustrating and a little scary, but the other half of it was paperwork that my mother had to review or sign off on regarding illegal goings on in the country. Many names of people I had either heard of or actually met down Knockturn Alley.

"Ricki, thank you so much!" I jumped and quickly filed away a document on the Alley's illegal drug trade as my mother looked at the half cleaned desk. "Benjamin here is going to give you a tour, he works for the Department of Mysteries. I know you have an interest in that so I thought he'd be good company for you. You can ask him anything. I'm sorry, dear, I didn't think I'd be quite so swamped today as I am," my mother said, giving me an apologetic smile.

Benjamin, Mr. Stain, was around my mother's height (5'8), a little older than her, rather stocky, and he had a thick, dark blonde beard and greying hair. He was a very cordial man, very businesslike. He had a wife and two young kids and was very dedicated to his job. He knew a lot of people around the Ministry and introduced me to them as we went around. He then brought me down to the Department of Mysteries and showed me the offices that he was in charge of and his own office. A key factor in his success, which I guessed before he told me, was that he was a Slytherin too ("You're in Slytherin!? Ah, a great house. It'll really bring you places. Look where it brought me! In charge of a department for the Ministry, well payed, a family and a nice holiday home, too."). After giving me a detailed tour of the Department of Mysteries, explaining all of the rooms and the wonderful things they did down there, he set me some trivial little tasks to do to pass the day until my mother came and got me.

"I hope I'll be working with you again soon, Ricki. You've got a great little worker there, Scarlett, I'd be surprised if she's not running the place one day." I liked Mr. Stain, I really did.

My mother apologised again and again that she had to work all day as she walked me out of the Ministry and apparated be back to Hogwarts. "What do you think, though? Do you think you'd like to come back?"

"Yeah, no it was really fun! Definitely," I said as I left her in Hogwarts' entrance hall and went off to have dinner.

"Scabe was looking for you, something about the Alley, I don't know.." Lissa was hanging off one of her fellow quidditch team members, the keeper, and Blaise was giving her the evils from further down the table. They had split up and Lissa had since been making her way through the quidditch team, and the other houses' quidditch teams. "How was work?"

"Ok. Uneventful, really. Is Scabe in the common room?" She nodded and smacked the keeper's hand away from her thigh. I just rolled my eyes and headed to find Scabe. It probably seemed like Lissa and I were growing apart but that wasn't true. We would always be best friends, conspirators, we just didn't need to be around each other as much as we used to.

I indeed found Scabe in the common room, just about to leave for the Alley with the others. They were flooing this time.

"There you are! How was your first day of Auroring?" Scabe asked, throwing some powder onto the fire, making the flames green.

"I wasn't Auroring. I didn't really do anything."

"You coming with us, now?" I nodded and took the liberty of stepping into the flames before he could and twirling off to the Thestral's Head.

It was the first time I had been to the Alley that week a I had forgotten that I had pretty much spilled my life story so I got a bit of a shock when someone held up a Sirius Black wanted poster to their face and said "Hey, kiddo, where's daddy?" as I passed, someone else made kissy noises to Scabe and I, and yet another person shouted "Get in there!" at Scabe.

"Jesus fucking Christ! Who Knew! You people are better at gossiping than a group of fucking teenage girls at a sleepover!" I shouted, exasperated as I flopped down in the armchair beside Scabe's.

"It'll pass."

"Hmph."

"It'll pass if I punch someone," he said, making me laugh and leaning in, kissing me for a long time. When we broke apart, Fizzy was sat opposite us, smirking, as we're quite a few others.

"What?" I glared at him.

"Nada. You've just been sitting in that chair for quite some time now and I've been waiting for the day that would happen," he nodded at my hand which was intertwined with Scabe's and hung in between the two armchairs.

I went back to Scabe's later with the others just to chill. Sky cooked us all dinner (he was rather the chef, don't you know) and I settled into the corner of the sofa, tucked under Scabe's arm as we ate and drank and laughed. As it got quite late and it looked like the others were going to stay up drinking and playing cards, Scabe got up, stretching and yawning.

"Well, I'm off to bed. See you all in the daylight hours." He turned go and then turned back, looking down at me. Raising a brow, he tilted his head towards the door, looked that way and then looked back at me. Taking his hand I got up and together we turned to go. I paused and turned back to the others.

"Well, I'm off to bed. See you in the daylight hours." I chirped, throwing a wink in their general direction and leaving the room, Scabe in tow. Once in his room, I pushed him onto the bed, climbing on top.

"Woah," he breathed as I enthusiastically started to strip him.

"Hey, you've had your fun these last two times. My go now."

The next morning I woke up before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep, so I threw on some clothes, crept out of the room and headed to the shops. I bought food for breakfast and dinner, as well as the ingredients for some sort of baked goods. I planned to get cooking back at the house, something I used to do when I was younger and couldn't sleep, but the kitchen was a mess so I cleaned it first. Then I made pancake batter and when nobody had woken up yet I cleaned the sitting room. Finally, Anna woke up just as I had finished peeling vegetables, shortly followed by Sky and Ian, so I made them and myself breakfast.

"What's all this?" Scabe asked as he came into the kitchen and saw us all eating pancakes.

"The child is a household goddess, it would seem. Tell me, is she trying to make up for something? Perhaps something lacking in the bedroom?" Anna questioned him. As an answer, he just scoffed and took his share of pancakes. "Really? Braniac smart, looks like a fucking supermodel, goddess in the kitchen and fucks like a pornstar? That's really not fair." Scabe just tried to look like he didn't care and I smirked into the frying pan. "Hm. I reckon you should keep it, then."


	15. A Date With A Scumbag

Hogsmeade came sooner than I expected and it turned out I was far more nervous than I thought I would be. I got dressed, having sought Lissa's approval on what to wear, and had breakfast with her and and our friends from the other houses. I didn't see Scabe anywhere and we hadn't really made any solid plan for the day so I decided to head out into the grounds with Lissa and the others. Soon enough, though, we had been caught up by Scabe and Co. The latter overtook us and Scabe threw an arm around my waist, pulling me away from my innocent friends who gave me puzzled looks (aside from Lissa who made rude hand gestures at me and winked as I said my goodbyes), and leading me off to the snowy village.

We left our boisterous peers at The Three Broomsticks and explored the quaint little town, a place I was unfamiliar with apart from the mainstreet. We found some great little boutiques (in which Scabe looked extremely out of place) and shops full of odd little knick-knacks. Although I protested, Scabe even ended up buying me a dress or two before we headed to a little café. Here, we thought it would be a good idea to try the haggis (it wasn't) and then had some tea and scones (very manly).

We took a long route back up to the castle later, winding through the snow covered grounds, stopping to have a miniature snowball fight here and there, ninja style. At one point I had asked Scabe about all the books in his room that I had noticed the last time I stayed there. He put his arm around me as we walked and he explained how he pretty much learned to read by reading those books. There was nothing much else to do when he was a kid and they turned out to be a nice escape from his shitty life. A pile of them he and Sky had found in a skip when they were little and they turned into his favourite books, though they were muggle ones. As he talked, he took my hands in one of his and slipped his Slytherin house ring (all the boys got them after they were sorted) onto one of my fingers. Nonchalantly as that, as we trudged through the snow and he talked about classic muggle literature in his silly cockney accent and I thought about Cathy and Heathcliffe in a little Wuthering Heights daydream.


End file.
